Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (9 page)

Harry nudged the legs of the two women and
whimpered softly. They understood his message when he nodded at Sam asleep on
the couch. Both sat down again, and this time Harry sat next to Jessica so he
wouldn't miss anything.

Mrs. Philpott began, her voice quiet, but
excited. "First of all, I want you to know I'm not a crazy old woman. At least,
I'm fairly certain I'm not. I had planned to visit you and John tonight to
discuss all of this. Where do I begin?"

Harry listened as Mrs. Philpott described the
first dream she'd had, the one about the earthquake and how it had happened
just like in her dream. Then he was almost as stunned as Jessica to hear about
Mrs. Philpott's cat, who talked to her on a computer. Harry had never thought
of doing that. In fact, Harry had never really tried to read, much less learn
to spell. He figured he might learn when Sam did, although he hadn't solved the
problem of actually getting into the classroom. He decided that this was one
smart cat. Harry had seen him around the neighborhood, of course, but there had
been no reason to ever talk to each other. When Mrs. Philpott described her
dream about the hurricane, Harry forgot himself enough to give two short barks
before looking sheepishly at the still-sleeping Sam.

"Well now, that certainly got a reaction!" Mrs.
Philpott said. She looked at Harry directly and asked, "Did you have the same
dream? No, wait," putting up a hand to forestall the barking, she said, "Stand
up and wag your tail if you had the hurricane dream, Harry."

Harry quickly stood up and ferociously wagged
his tail. She knew! She heard the same voice in the night! Harry had never been
as thrilled. Mrs. Philpott was nodding her head and smiling broadly.

Jessica looked stunned. Then she shook her head,
saying, "No, now wait just a minute. He probably understood you saying stand up
and so he did it. He couldn't possibly be saying he had the dream. What am I
saying? He couldn't possibly be answering a specific question from you! He's a
dog, for goodness sake!"

"Well," said Mrs. Philpott, "we should be able
to test this out. Keep an open mind, Jessica. I'll admit, this is unusual, but
people have speculated for ages that the animals we live with have more
intelligence than we give them credit for having."

The next fifteen minutes were the most exciting
of Harry's life as Mrs. Philpott, and then Jessica, devised ways to test out
the idea that Harry could communicate with them, answering questions with
various body movements. Oh, boy, Harry thought. I can't wait till Sam wakes up
so I can tell her about Mrs. Philpott and her cat. Then he wondered if Jessica
realized yet that he'd been talking to Sam in his own language for the past six
months--and that Sam understood! Probably she didn't know that, he decided. And
judging from the looks of amazement, shock, fear, and surprise that continued
to fly across her face, Harry thought it was probably best that she not find
out anytime soon.

At that moment, a loud meowing was heard. "Oh,
good heavens, I forgot he was in there!" exclaimed Mrs. Philpott as she jumped
up and hurried to open the door of the computer room.

Jessica turned and watched as an exquisite cat
walked slowly into the living room after throwing a look of disgust at Mrs.
Philpott, who was saying, "I'm sorry, Perceval! We were so caught up in our
discussion I forgot you'd probably want to be in on it."

The cat was a gorgeous Siamese with perfect seal
points. The dark color covered his long, tapered tail, paws, and ears. The dark
mask of his face looked painted on as it emerged in a triangular fashion
between wide pointed ears. Brilliant sapphire blue eyes filled with
intelligence took in the scene quickly. He meowed once at Mrs. Philpott, and
then turned his elegant, long body, covered in creamy fur, to return to the
computer room.

"I think we're supposed to follow him," Mrs.
Philpott said.

Jessica, Harry and Mrs. Philpott gathered around
the computer desk where the cat sat next to the keyboard. Mrs. Philpott
explained, "This morning I bought some software designed to accommodate people
with physical handicaps. I had just finished installing it when you arrived. It
has a screen showing letters of the alphabet that can be entered with a press
of the mouse button. The store also had a new touch and glide mouse device
which I hope will be easier for him to use than the keyboard and regular mouse.
He can position the mouse by sliding his paw along the touchpad and then press
gently to click on his choice of letter." She turned to the cat and asked, "How
is it working for you?"

Jessica felt a thrill of excitement as the
computer screen lit up with a message from the cat:

MUCH BETTER

QUICKER.

"Oh my God," she said.

NOT GOD, came the message, NAME IS PERCEVAL.

"Oh, sorry, Perceval, this is Jessica Samuels,
and the dog is Harry," said Mrs. Philpott. "I've just been telling them about
the dreams, and you, and then we discovered that Harry understood us and had
the same hurricane dream."

THE DOG HAD THE DREAM???

REMARKABLE.

Harry gave a short bark as Jessica read the
message aloud.

"Why remarkable? Harry is a pretty amazing
dog--just as smart as any cat," Jessica said defensively to Mrs. Philpott.

"Oh, dear, let's not start off quibbling about
which species is more intelligent," Mrs. Philpott said firmly. "We all need to
work together on this, this...whatever this is that is happening. Perceval,
Jessica says that Samantha, her little girl, had the hurricane dream as well. I
wonder if there is some kind of correlation--" Mrs. Philpott began and was
interrupted by the ringing of the telephone.

"Hello? Oh, yes, John, they're here," she said
into the phone, turning with raised eyebrows to Jessica.

Jessica took the phone and spoke urgently, "John,
get over here right now. No, Sam's okay, but you need to get here as fast as
possible. I'll explain when you get here." As she hung up the phone, Jessica
laughed ruefully. "Right. I'll explain this. I don't even know if I believe
what is happening!"

The cat meowed and they turned back to the
computer for his latest message.

WAIT FOR MORE TILL JOHN GETS HERE.

Jessica breathed a long sigh and said in wonder,
"He heard me! And understood--he knows about John coming over. I just can't
believe this!"

Mrs. Philpott looked closely at Jessica and
realized the younger woman appeared shell-shocked. Grasping her by the elbow,
Mrs. Philpott led Jessica out of the computer room and into the kitchen. "Come
on," she said firmly. "Let's make some sandwiches and coffee until John comes."

New York City, New York

Standing in JFK Airport and fishing his phone
card out of his wallet, Nathan felt completely jetlagged. Alex was slumped
against the wall next to the bank of phones, dark brown hair escaping from her
long braid to hang in wisps around her face. He looked at her for a minute and
tried to make his brain fire with some kind of logic.

"You know what we need to do?" he said.

"What?" she asked.

"We need to stop traveling. We need to
not
get on another plane for at least a day, if not more. We need to leave this
airport and go find a hotel and just sleep for twenty-four hours. We're both
exhausted and I can't think straight--can you?"

Alex thought about what he was saying and came
to the conclusion that there was no rush in their going home. The news reports
they had seen on the televisions in the airport were chilling. Alex realized
she was in a mild state of shock over the news about Los Angeles and, at this
point, was running on the dregs of adrenaline left in her system. It looked
like there was nothing left in L.A. to go back to, and her whole life, such as
it was, had been in Los Angeles. She had nothing left, nowhere to go, no home.
Staring at Nathan, she saw that he was pale beneath his dark tan with
bruised-looking circles under his deep blue eyes. He'd had close friends at the
University as well. His clothes were rumpled and his hair was flattened on one
side from sleeping against the window of the last plane they'd been on. He was
right; they needed a break, a time of relief from travel and some time to
grieve, as well.

"Okay," she said simply. "Let's go." Picking up
her bag, Alex headed for the exits where cabs were waiting. Nathan grabbed his
guitar case in one hand, large garment bag in the other, and followed numbly,
glad to postpone going home. He wasn't ready for California...not yet.

Cape Fair, Mrs. Philpott's House

Mrs. Philpott finished making chicken salad
sandwiches using the wheat bread Jessica had brought. She knew Jessica was
bewildered by today's events and was probably trying to rationalize it all
away. Well, she thought, time enough for her to believe it's really happening.
She had more experience with it and was still amazed by the dreams and the cat.
Although, the cat's intelligence and ability to communicate had not been as
surprising to her as might have been expected. Mrs. Philpott had felt more of
an affinity with animals the older she got. Working on issues concerning the
environment, she had come to believe that part of the problem stemmed from the
disconnection between humans and nature. The need humans had to deny
intelligence in animals was another way to separate themselves from nature.
Over time, she had felt that the problem in communicating with animals came not
from the animals' lack of intelligence, but from the human lack of ability to
understand animal language.

As Jessica filled celery sticks with peanut
butter for Samantha, she wondered if Mrs. Philpott had put something in the
lemonade, but then shook her head and laughed inwardly at herself. This all
seemed so outlandish, but it must be possible, she thought. She was seeing it
with her own two eyes, but it seemed so unlikely--more like something John
would put in one of his novels. In fact, hadn't she read about a dog
communicating with humans in one of Dean Koontz's books? He was a favorite
author of John's and she'd enjoyed reading his collection of Koontz the first
year of their marriage. Something about a genetic experiment on a dog, but that
had been just one experiment, not all animals. And that raised another
question: was this ability to communicate happening with other animals? Or was
it something affecting just the animals in Cape Fair?

After the pesticide incident with Sam, Jessica
knew side effects from environmental pollution could be far-reaching and
unexpected. Who knew what might be in the air or water affecting the genetics
of the animals--and humans--living in the area? Jessica realized her hands were
shaking as she contemplated the idea that genetic changes were occurring, might
already have occurred in her very own child. Samantha had the dream! The same
dream as the cat and the dog. Did that mean she was changed somehow? What new
terrifying world have we created, she wondered fearfully. The sound of John's
Jeep Cherokee arriving in Mrs. Philpott's driveway curtailed her thoughts.

Somewhere over the Mojave Desert, Nevada

"Have the camera ready to tape as we approach
the city," Maria said to Zack as the helicopter flew over the Mojave Desert.

"Were you this bossy as a kid, or did you
develop such an attractive personality trait in adulthood?" Zack asked over the
radio headphones.

Maria looked startled and then laughed as she
saw Zack's grin. "What an amusing man you are, Zack Tyler," she said
condescendingly, and then continued, smiling. "No, it's not a recent trait.
Being an only child, I got all my parents' attention. And when I entered grade
school, I expected the same from my teachers and the other kids. It was a shock
to discover that they didn't hang on my every word like my parents. Sometimes I
think that was the origin of my desire to be a journalist. Anyway, I tended to
be bossy back then, too, and it wasn't always appreciated. You can thank my
mother for sitting me down and telling me to learn to cooperate, or I would be
even worse!"

Maria stopped talking abruptly as she realized
that Zack couldn't thank her mother and neither could she. Her eyes filled with
tears.

"Hey," Zack said, reaching out to grasp her hand
and squeeze it tightly. "I'm sorry. I know this is a horrible time for you, and
here I am kidding around."

"No, I need to keep my emotions in check. It's
hard, but I'm not going to let my parents down. I have a job to do, and your
sense of humor gives me the balance I need. What you and I have seen in the
last several days has been horrible. If we let ourselves, we'd both spend a few
days crying, and we just don't have the time for it right now. Later, when
things calm down, then I'll have time to cry for them. My parents--and all the
other dead as well."

"Maria, you have to let yourself grieve.
Besides, when has the news ever calmed down? That's like saying, 'When the
world stops turning.' It's not going to happen," Zack said.

"I know, but I can't let myself fall apart in
the middle of a job," Maria said. She pulled a comb from her bag and worked it
through the tangles in her hair. "Come on, let's get ready for Las Vegas."

Cape Fair, Mrs. Philpott's House

Sam was waking up in the living room, refreshed
from her nap. "Daddy!" she said, surprised. "When did you get here?" She ran
over to give John a hug and then looked at the three adults who had obviously
been discussing something when she woke up. They had that look of being quiet
that all grown-ups get when they are in the middle of talking and then decide
to stop because a little kid comes into the room. Samantha was tired of seeing
that look. It had happened a lot more to her since she'd been sick.

"Were you guys talking about me again?" she
asked in an exasperated tone. "I'm really sick of you grown-ups sometimes."