Lucid (2 page)

Day 1

Night

You have no idea how hard I tried to forget the picture of the old man's face on my TV. Also, forgetting how I reacted would help, too. As soon as I recognized the old man as my seatmate in my dream, I screamed loudly. Kyle bellowed with laughter, told me that he knew I'd freak out, and kept teasing me about it until his friends came to get him
.

Apparently he wasn't the only one who noticed. When my mom finally came home, she asked me what was wrong. I told her Kyle showed me a horror film on TV, and she took me out for a fast food sundae. Even the chocolate syrup and whipped cream couldn't help me to calm down. I never touched the pizza that was delivered, either.

At first, I thought that maybe my dream was a symbolic premonition. You know, like the kind the psychics on late-night TV talk about? Resorting to psychic premonitions was pretty desperate for me. If you hadn't figured it out by now, I'm a pretty scientific person. I'm one of those smart kids who dominate science fairs, graduate with top honors, and go to private high school on a scholarship
.

You can call me a nerd, it's all right. It won't be the first time I've heard that, but I'm not that weird. My brain just works differently. My mind works in numbers, and usually everything can fit into some sort of formula. The dream and the old man threw me completely off balance. Perhaps there was a weird virus going around, and the old man had been infected. What if the other people were infected, too? Maybe the light was the antidote. How would I explain
that to the doctors looking for a miracle cure? No, that theory didn't seem to work. If the light was a medicine, it would actually
have substance. Heat only worked for tense muscles
.

Naturally, all this hype made it pretty scary to go to sleep. I tried staying up by talking to my best friends online. Only one of them, Tiffany, was awake. Tiff was always online; her passion in life was surfing the Web. You could tell by her appearance, if you were lucky enough to actually
see her in public. Short, mousy, and pale with big, blue eyes, Tiff argued that sitting at her desk with her face glued to the computer was the habitat for which her body was best-adapted
.

Tiff, like me, was a brainiac. Her extensive knowledge on the most random subjects could impress anyone. Seriously, our cheese-loving seventh grade English teacher gave her fifty extra points for her knowledge of designer Swiss fondues. I think it's safe to say that I could rely on Tiff to know all about the human shell episode
.

“Apparently it's not some sensational hoax, either,” Tiff typed to me. Instant messaging was her favorite form of communication. She was pretty soft-spoken and timid in person. Her bold, matter-of-fact personality really did shine when she let her fingers do the talking
.

“So this old guy really does exist?” I typed a little harder than intended.

“Of course! What, did you think they had some dummy on the show?” Tiff paused in her typing. I could tell, because there was no star blinking next to her screen name
, which is Star_Hax42. Mine's DevonXander which is just my name, Devon Alexander. I'm not that creative. “I did some more research after the show. Apparently the old man was a retired school teacher named Henry Allen who lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. The plot thickens, though. About a dozen other instances have been reported all over the country. Henry‘s wife was the first one to report anything, which explains why he‘s getting all the publicity. I bet there‘ll be more tomorrow.”

So, the old man I saw existed. He also lived on the other side of the country. The other reports were probably the others on the bus, too. It seemed my dream act
ually had some basis in reality, and it started spooking me big time.

“You there?” Tiff typed after a five minute pause. Usually I answered her IM quickly. I didn't do much else on the computer for fun
.

“Are there pictures of any of the other victims?” I typed the last word with a little dread. I had a feeling these people were not suffering from some weird illness but they were staying asleep because someone
wanted it that way
.

“Um… a few. Hang on
.
” Tiff paused as she searched for some links
.

I clicked on them as she posted. To my horror, I remembered a few from my dream. I recognized a petite woman who appeared to be in her thirties
, a middle-aged man with spiky blond hair, and a dark, bald body-building dude. My heart began beating much too quickly
.

“
Okay
, what's up?” Tiff was always on the ball. She was hyper-sensitive to people's emotions, even through a computer. “Do you know anything about this weird stuff?”

I hesitated for about ten minutes — a new IM record for me — before responding
.

“Promise not to be too skeptical when I finish?”

*
***

Surprisingly, Tiff didn't respond by typing “LOLOLOLOL OK” after I finished telling her about my dream. She didn't even interrupt, which she normally did to make it seem like a real conversation. I could almost picture her on the other end, inching closer to her monitor while she analyzed my story
.

“Well?” I typed after giving her about twenty minutes to read my dream. It probably only took her three minutes to read the entire thing, but I knew she would want time to do some researching and to collect her thoughts.

“It does seem like a weird coincidence,” Tiff typed
, a little slower than usual. “But I don't think you should jump to conclusions too soon. Maybe you had some weird connection with the universe and you're just experiencing
déjà vu
. My great
-
grandma apparently used to dream about things that happened the next day all the time. And I mean, obviously, these people haven't been abducted. They're all asleep in hospitals. Still, just let me know if you have any more of these spaceship dreams.”

“I will,” I replied. Tiff's IMs of wisdom made me feel a little more relaxed. “You'll be the first one to know, for sure. Thanks, Tiff.”

“Sweet dreams.” Tiff added that last line with a wink before signing off.

I didn't think it was funny.

Day 2

Morning

I woke up the next morning feeling pretty anxious. I had entered the spaceship again last night
.

After talking to Tiff, I felt a little more comfortable about falling asleep. Also, after four-thirty
, my eyes were staying shut whether I wanted them to or not. I awoke the next morning especially drowsy. Lack of sleep and a lousy day of work ahead of me slowed my thought process. However, by the time I had brushed my teeth, I remembered my recent spaceship adventure.

This time, I was on the ship before it took off. Now, I
really felt like I was on a school bus. The land outside could have been rural Wisconsin; it was eerily familiar to a place I would visit in reality
. I actually live right in the middle of a boring suburb, but I've seen pictures of farms, okay
?

The people on this little trip were not confused like the others. They all seemed pretty happy about being on the ship. I could almost feel the buzz of excitement coursing through the crowd
. One old lady asked me why I wasn't excited.

“Surely being chosen for the first vacation resort on the moon makes you happy!” s
he exclaimed after I told her I was afraid
.

S
omeone told these people where they were going, and it just so happened to be a big, fat lie. But that meant that there was someone else who knew what this “dream” was really about. Maybe they were responsible for all these people not waking up again.

“Who said that's where we were going?” I asked her
.

“The nice, young lady who came on board before we left!” The old woman looked at me a little disdainfully. “She was wearing that electric blue uniform and had a megaphone. How can you not remember?” I scanned the room for anyone sporting electric blue attire. Whoever she was, she wasn't on this ship anymore.

The only other person who didn't seem excited about the trip was a guy sitting in the back. He looked about five years older than me, college age, with wavy, blond hair and bright, grey eyes. Th
at was another thing I noticed. All of the souls seemed to have dull eyes, like a cow. This guy, however, looked alert and aware of himself. I chose him as my bus mate.

“Oh, this seat's taken
.
” T
he guy started scooting away from me. His reproachful eyes met mine and his face relaxed. “Wait, you don't think we're going to some vacation, do you?”

“No,” I admitted, sitting down next to him. “And neither do you?”

“Nope. This thing is fake. I don't know how I realized it, but I'm sure it's a scam.”

“Good. I thought I was going crazy
.
” I sighed with relief.

“If you are, then I'm crazy, too,” he assured me. “I think we're just dreaming.”

“I know,” I replied. “I've been here before.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows. Apparently my new friend was a first-timer. “So, do you know what really goes on here?”

“No
.
” I frowned as I looked around the ship. It seemed less scary with an actual person sitting next to me. “I showed up for the first time yesterday just thinking I was having some weird dream, but then the old man sitting next to me appeared on the news the next day. He's the old dude that they call the Living Shell on TV.”

“And you saw him on here?” His grey eyes grew wider. “Man, are we gonna end up like him?” He looked up, startled, as the ship came to a halt. It was funny how I never felt the ship start moving. I also realized I didn't even come on board the ship with the rest of the souls
.

“No
.
” I searched frantically for that little heat ball I used to escape last time. I found it lurking up in the luggage rack. (Don't ask me why a spaceship had a luggage rack.) “Here, touch that.”

“What is it?” t
he guy asked
.

“Our ticket home. We're the only ones who can feel it, since we're the only ones who know we're dreaming.” I looked at the guy. “My name's Devon Alexander, by the way. I think it would be wise if we talked more about this when we're awake.”

“Oh, right
.
” The guy nodded. “I'm Mitchell Stansky. You can add me online. My name is Mitch94.” I couldn't help but smile. So, my screen name wasn't boring. It was
mature
.

“
Alright
, Mitch, I'll add you.” I stopped as the remaining souls exited the bus. I was afraid that if we lingered on board, people were going to find us. If I saw an electric blue uniform, I was running for it
.

“Hopefully we won't see each other here again!” Mitch said before he touched the ball of light and vanished.

Did I look that cool when I disappeared out of here? No one was there to see me as I exited the creepy ship.

.

Day 2

Afternoon

Summer camp was a nightmare
, as usual. I didn't really mind scrubbing the boys' urinals, though. Well, maybe I
did mind it (I mean who would actually enjoy something like that?) but my mind was preoccupied. As soon as I woke up, I added Mitch to my friends list. Naturally, he wasn't on at nine in the morning
, so I had to wait until after work to check. I also left Tiff a quick e
-
mail, letting her know the dream happened again but this time I met another person who knew he was dreaming
.

I silently cursed myself for not asking any of the souls their names. Maybe Mitch would help me devise a plan to get the souls' names. It creeped me out to think about all those souls being shuttled off to some unknown fate, never to wake up again. How long would it be before the rest of the world caught on? The two busloads I saw had at least fifty souls on board. If all these people didn't wake up, mass panic and insomnia would surely ensue. I tried to avoid thinking about if one of my friends or family would be on the next bus. Would they recognize me?

“You're awfully quiet
,
” m
y mom said as I climbed into her car. She actually wasn't on the phone for once. “Is everything okay
? You look upset about something.” She looked at me with concern.

Part of me wanted to tell her about the dreams, just to see her reaction. Another part of me didn't feel like playing twenty million questions afterward, and I definitely didn't want to go to some shrink about it.

“I'm just thinking about something
.
” I racked my brains for an excuse. “Summer reading.”

“Oh, right
.
” M
y mom reached into her purse to extract her phone. Now that's the mother I know and love! “Tell me when you've finished your first book and I'll go get you the next one.”

She knew better than to give me all three books simultaneously. My mind tends to jump around, and I'd never finish a single book with them all staring at me. I'd end up mixing all the plots. No teacher would believe I had read a page of my homework if I wrote about a science experiment that turns into a wolf during the full moon on his way to a lost planet full of dinosaurs. It might make a nice comic, though.

As my mom chatted away to her coworker, I felt my own phone vibrate in my pocket. I jumped a little; the only person that called me regularly was my other best friend, Tom, and he was away for baseball camp. I pulled out my phone and saw it was Tiff. She
never resorted to communication by phone. She had to have read my e
-
mail.

“Hey, you read it?” I skipped the hello bit
.

“Yeah,” Tiff answered. I could hear her tapping away on her computer. “I can't believe you met another person who was lucid on the bus!”

“Lucid?” I heard of the word in one of my video games, but I didn't know what it meant.

“It means you were basically a
wake during the dream… listen
—
” s
he stopped what I was sure would have been a very long definition of lucid
, “
—c
an you come to my house this afternoon? I wanna do more research, but it's a pain to send you all the links when we can look together. Plus, we're going out to eat and my mom said I can invite someone.”

“Sure, hang on
.
” I pulled the phone away from my face
. “Mom,
Mom
.
” I waved my hand in front of her face to get her attention.

“DEVON!” My mother swerved, which was stupid. There wasn't anyone around us on the road. “I'm driving
!
”

“Can I go to Tiff's?” I asked quickly. “Her mom said she can invite someone to dinner, but I wanna go over beforehand to chill.”

“Oh
.
” M
y mom smiled, which made me roll my eyes. She and Kyle have been calling Tiff my “girlfriend” since third grade. It definitely wasn't like that! “Sure, I'll bring you on my way to yoga. You'll have to be ready, though!”

“
Okay
, thanks.” I turned back to the phone. “Hear that?”

“Yeah, your mom goes at six
, right?” Tiff asked. “That'll give us an hour before we go to dinner, and you can stay later, too.”

“
See you then.” I hung up, knowing Tiff didn't like to stay on her cell phone for too long. I was surprised she didn't text me. She must be taking this dream thing seriously.

.