Gone (9 page)

She flips her hair behind her ear. “I think he must have a little Internet store, Cabe. He buys stuff cheap and sells it in his virtual store for a profit. So he’s got a little shipping/receiving department over there.” She points to the large shelving unit.

“Maybe he goes to yard sales and buys stuff too.”

Janie nods. “Seems weird that he’d go to school for
science and end up doing this. I wonder if he got laid off or something?”

“Considering the state of Michigan’s economy and rising unemployment rate lately, that’s entirely likely.”

Janie grins. “You’re such a geek. I love you. I really do.”

Cabel’s face lights up. “Thank you.”

“So . . .” Janie sets the notebook on the table and picks up a well-worn paperback copy of
Catch-22
. Pages through it, losing her train of thought. Sees a torn piece of paper used as a bookmark. Words are scribbled in pencil on the bookmark.

Morton’s Fork.

That’s what it says.

Janie closes the book and sets it back down on the desk. “Now what?”

“What do you want to do? I don’t see any evidence that he’s a dream catcher, do you?”

“No. But would you find any evidence of that in my house if you looked?”

Cabel laughs. “Uh, green notebook, the dream notes on your bedside table . . .”

“Bedside table,” Janie says, tapping her bottom lip with her forefinger. She walks over to Henry’s bed, but
there’s nothing there. Just the water glass. She even pushes aside the mattress and slips her fingers between it and the box springs, feeling for a diary or journal of some sort. “There’s nothing here, Cabe. We should go.”

“What about the computer?”

“No—we’re not going there. Really. Let’s just go. And besides, you saw the guy. He’s not all gnarled and blind.”

“How do you know he’s not blind? You can’t tell that.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Janie says. “But his hands looked fine.”

“Well . . . what did Miss Stubin say in the green notebook? Mid-thirties for the hands? He can’t be much older than late thirties, forty tops, right? So maybe it just hasn’t happened yet.”

Janie sighs. Doesn’t want to go this deep. Doesn’t want to think about the green notebook anymore. She walks to the door and stands there a moment. Bangs her head lightly against it. Then she opens it, goes outside and sits in the sweltering car until Cabel comes.

“Hospital?” he says, hope in his voice, when he turns the car onto the road.

“No.” Janie’s voice is firm. “We’re done with it, Cabe. I don’t care if he was the king of dream catchers. He’s probably not—he’s probably just some guy who would
freak out if he knew we were snooping around inside his house. I just don’t want to pursue this anymore.” She’s tired of it all.

Cabe nods. “Okay, okay. Not another word. Promise.”

7:07 p.m.

At Cabel’s house, they both work out. Janie knows she’s got to keep her strength up. They have a meeting with Captain on Monday, which means an assignment looms. For the first time, Janie doesn’t feel very excited about it.

“Any idea what Captain will have for us?” Janie asks between presses.

“Never know with her.” Cabel breathes in and blows out fiercely as he reaches the end of his arm curl reps. “Hope it’s something light and easy.”

“Me too,” Janie says.

“We’ll find out soon enough.” Cabel puts his weights on the floor. “In the meantime, I can’t seem to stop thinking about Henry. There’s something weird about the whole situation.”

Janie sets the bar in the cradle and sits up. “Thought you said you were going to let it go,” she says. Teases. But the curiosity takes over. “What makes you say that, anyway?”

“Well, you said there was a connection in the dream, like you had with Miss Stubin, right? That’s what got my
brain going and now I can’t stop it. And how odd, just the way he lives. He’s a recluse. I mean, he’s got that old station wagon parked in the yard, so he obviously drives, but . . .”

Janie looks sharply at Cabel. “Hmm,” she says.

“Maybe it’s all just a coincidence,” he says.

“Probably,” she says. “Like you said, he’s just a recluse.”

But.

10:20 p.m.

“Goodnight, sweets,” Cabe murmurs in Janie’s ear. They’re standing on Cabel’s front stoop. Janie’s not about to sleep there again. It’s too hard. Too hard to keep her secret.

“I love you,” she says, soulfully. Means it. Means it so much.

“Love you, too.”

Janie goes, arms outstretched and her fingers entwined in Cabel’s until they can’t reach anymore, and then she reluctantly lets her arm drop and walks slowly across the yards to her street, her house.

Lies awake on her back. And her mind shifts from Cabe to the earlier events of the day. To Henry.

12:39 a.m.

She can’t stop thinking about him.

Because, what if?

And how is she supposed to know, unless . . . ?

Janie slips out of bed, puts her clothes on and grabs her phone, house key, and a snack for energy. The bus is empty except for the driver.

Thankfully, he’s not asleep.

12:58 a.m.

Janie’s flip-flops slap the hospital floor and echo through the otherwise quiet hallways. An orderly with an empty gurney nods to Janie as he exits the elevator. Up on the third floor, Janie pushes through the ICU door without hesitation. It’s dimly lit and quiet. Janie fends off the hallway dreams and, before she opens Henry’s door, goes over her plan in her mind.

She takes a deep breath and pushes open the door, closing it swiftly behind her as everything around her goes black, and then she’s slammed by the colors and the outrageous static once again.

The power of the dream forces Janie to her hands and knees. The attack on her senses makes gravity ten times stronger than normal. She sways inadvertently as if to avoid the giant block walls of burning color that swing toward her in 3-D. Mentally she’s trying to hear her own thoughts above the noise, and it’s incredibly difficult—it’s like she’s in a vortex of static
.

Janie’s hands and feet quickly grow numb. Blindly, she turns to the right and crawls, aiming for the bathroom so that if she has to, she can get inside and close the door. As a flaming yellow block swings toward her, Janie lunges to avoid it and feels her head connect with the hospital room wall.
Concentrate!
she yells to herself. But the noise is overpowering. All she can do is slide forward on numb stumps, hoping she’s even moving at all, and waiting for a flash of something, anything that will explain some of the mystery of Henry
.

Janie doesn’t know how much time goes by before she can’t continue moving
.

Before she can no longer press on, unable to fight any longer. Unable to find the bathroom, to break the connection
.

It’s as if she’s fallen through ice, engulfed in frigid water. Numb, both body and mind. Even the noise and the colors are muted
.

Things stop mattering
.

She can’t feel herself flopping around wildly
.

Doesn’t know she’s losing consciousness
.

Doesn’t care anymore either. She just wants to give up, let the nightmare overtake her, engulf her, fill her brain and body with the endless clamor and sickening dazzle
.

And it does
.

Soon, everything goes black
.

But then
.

In Janie’s own unconsciousness, the picture of a madman, a hairy, screaming madman that is her own father, slowly appears from the darkness before her
.

He reaches toward her, his fingers black and bloody, his eyes deranged, unblinking. Janie is paralyzed. Her father’s cold hands reach around her neck, squeezing tight, tighter, until Janie has no breath left. She’s unable to move, unable to think. Forced to let her own father kill her. As his grasp tightens further around Janie’s neck, Henry’s face turns sickly alabaster. He strains harder and begins to shake
.

Janie is dying
.

She has no fight left in her
.

It’s over
.

Just as she has given up, her father’s chalky face turns to glass and shatters into a dozen pieces
.

His grip around Janie’s neck releases. His body disappears
.

Janie falls to the ground, gasping, next to the pieces of her father’s exploded face. She looks at them, sucking breath, finally able to move
.

Raises herself up
.

And there, instead of seeing her father in the glass
,

She sees her own horrified, screaming face, reflected back at her
.

Static once again
.

For a very
.

Very
.

Long time
.

Janie realizes that she might be stuck here. Forever
.

2:19 a.m.

And then
.

A flicker of life
.

A flash of a woman’s figure in a dark gymnasium, a portrait of a man on a chair . .
.

And a voice
.

Distant. But clear. Distinct
.

Familiar
.

The voice of hope in one person’s ever-darkening world
.

“Come back,” the woman says. Her voice is sweet and young
.

She turns to face Janie. Steps into the light
.

Standing on strong legs, her eyes clear and bright. Her fingers, not gnarled, but long and lovely. “Janie,” she says in earnest. “Janie, my dear, come back.”

Janie doesn’t know how to come back
.

She is exhausted. Gone. Gone from this world and hovering somewhere no other living person could possibly be
.

Except for Henry
.

Janie’s mind is flooded with the new scene, a soft and quiet scene, of a man in a chair, and a woman, now standing in the light imploring Janie to come back. The woman walks over to Henry, stands beside him. Henry turns and looks at Janie. Blinks
.

“Help me,” he says. “Please, please, Janie. Help me.”

Janie is terrified of him. Still, there is nothing she can do but help
.

It is her gift
.

Her curse
.

She is unable to say no
.

Compelled, Janie pulls herself to attention, to full awareness, scared to death that the horrible din and burning colors will return at any moment, dreading getting
anywhere near this man who turns mad and strangles her. Wishing she could gather the strength to pull herself from this nightmare now, while she has the chance. But she cannot
.

Janie struggles silently to her feet in the gymnasium. With effort, she walks toward the two, her footsteps echoing. She has no idea what to do for Henry. Sees nothing that she can do to help. Really only wants to tie him up, or maybe kill him, so he doesn’t have the chance to hurt her
.

She stops a few feet away from them. Stares at the woman standing there, not quite believing her eyes. “It’s you,” she says. She feels a rush of relief. Her lip quivers. “Oh, Miss Stubin.”

Miss Stubin reaches out and Janie, overwhelmed by seeing her again and incredibly weak from this nightmare, stumbles into her arms. Miss Stubin’s grip is strong, full of comfort. It repairs some of Janie’s strength. Janie is filled with emotion as she feels the warmth, the love in Miss Stubin’s touch. “There, you’re all right,” Miss Stubin says
.

“You,” Janie says. “You’re . . . I thought I wouldn’t be seeing you again.”

Miss Stubin smiles. “I have been quite enjoying my time with Earl since I last saw you. It’s good to be whole again.” She pauses, eyes twinkling. They pick up the dim rays of light coming in through the gymnasium’s tiny upper windows. And
then she looks toward the mute Henry, who sits ever still. “I believe I’m here for Henry . . . I think to bring him home, if you know what I mean. Sometimes I don’t know myself why I’m summoned to other catchers’ dreams.”

Janie’s eyes widen. “So, it’s true. He really is one.”

“Yes, apparently so.”

They look at Henry, and then at each other. Silent, pondering. The dream catchers, all together in one place
.

“Wow,” Janie murmurs. She turns back to Miss Stubin. “Why didn’t you tell me about him? You said in the green notebook that there weren’t any other living dream catchers.”

“I didn’t know about him.” She smiles. “It appears he needs your help, first, before he can come with me. I’m glad you came.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Janie says. “His dreams are horrible.”

“He hasn’t many left,” Miss Stubin says
.

Janie presses her lips together and takes a deep breath. “He’s my father. You knew that, right?”

Miss Stubin shakes her head. “I didn’t know. So it’s hereditary, then. I’ve often wondered. It’s why I didn’t have children.”

“Did you—?” Janie’s suddenly struck by a thought. “You’re not related, are you? To us, I mean?”

Miss Stubin smiles warmly. “No, my dear. Wouldn’t that be something?”

Janie laughs softly at the craziness of it. “Do you think
that maybe there are others out there, then? Besides me?”

Miss Stubin clasps Janie’s hand and squeezes. “Knowing that Henry exists gives me hope that there are more. But dream catchers are nearly impossible to find.” She chuckles. “Best thing you can do to find them is to fall asleep in public places, I guess.”

Janie nods. She glances at Henry. “How am I supposed to help him?”

Miss Stubin raises an eyebrow. “I don’t know, but you know what to do to find out. He’s already asked you for help.”

“But . . . I don’t see . . . and he’s not leading me anywhere.” Janie looks around the near-vacant gymnasium, looking for clues, trying to figure out what she could possibly do to help Henry. Not wanting to get too close
.

Finally, Janie turns to Henry and takes a deep breath, glancing at Miss Stubin briefly for support. “Hey there,” she begins. Her voice shakes a little, nervous, scared, not sure what to expect. “How can I help you?”