Regina (13 page)

Great! I’m lost! I thought to myself.

I kept driving till I could find a safe place
to turn around. I kept a detailed map of the roads of Lee in the
glove box. It was recently dated online, so I knew it was accurate.
If I could find a driveway to pull into so I could look at the
map…..

Then I saw it, the curve coming up in the
road. I passed the familiar Fort Knox style house with the big
driveway. Anticipation and dread were filling up my chest. The
empty field loomed ahead of me as I took the curve.

The road went left and sent me back to my
dream. I was very scared. Sure enough, the road straightened out.
The field was empty to my right. However, tall Cedar trees lined
the left. I couldn’t see thru the trees, but the lights from the
houses across the way lit the way.

It was waiting for me ahead. Fog as thick as
pea soup, darker than the night was hanging in the air straight
ahead. I began to panic, this was my dream! I didn’t know what to
do and almost turned around on the road, but it rained earlier and
I would surely get stuck. Jeff’s response echoed in my head.

“
You’re going
to break up with me because I won’t come to visit you in
Lee
?”

“
No! I’m
breaking up with you because you’re a jerk
!” I
screamed into the phone and hung it up.

Now, panic and fear pulsated thru my body and
I began to breathe hard. I was trapped! There was no way I was
going to get away from it short of driving thru it. No, I couldn’t
do that. Knowledge told me not to go into the fog.

I was about to stop the car when I saw the
turn off to the left. Excitement and relief built my heart back up
while I escaped it. I turned the wheel while tears of happiness
began making their way down my cheeks.

Once I turned away from the road, I felt so
stupid I started laughing at myself. Here I was, scaring the hell
out of myself on a lone, dark country road because of some stupid
dream. I pulled my car over and sat for a second.

“I’m so damn STUPID!!” I shouted at myself
and busted out into tears.

I knew it was more than the dream that was
bothering me. The whole time here in Lee, I’ve felt different.
Maybe everything is different now. I knew I was doomed to stay here
in Lee and graduate from this high school rather than home in New
York. I knew I wanted Steven and purposely broke up with Jeff. I
knew my parents were different too. Mom wanted to be here in Lee,
being the happy little housewife and Dad seemed as if he didn’t
care where we lived, as long as it was with my mother. My
grandfather was not the man my mother told me he was. And this
whole town, it seems so strange……….

Before I could expand on my thoughts, I
glanced out my passenger side window and saw it.

A house.

It was sitting about fifty feet back from the
road in the darkness, just waiting for me to see it. The mammoth
roof was taller than the tree line. It was a three point roof and
loomed over the land before me. The blackness couldn’t hide the tan
brick walls and the black roof. The windows were dark, but large.
They were looking over the road like a guardian waiting for its
master. The grass was overgrown with weeds starting to flower.

I gulped. Was this the house from my dreams?
It must be! This is where I ended up after I got off the bus. For
weeks I searched for this house. Once I realized my dreams and this
town were connected, I looked for this house in vain.

My instincts took over, I don’t remember
opening the car door and walking towards the house. I felt a pull.
As if something in the house wanted me in there and was physically
pulling me into it. My feet scraped over the cement steps and onto
the porch. I felt dazed as I reached for the handle to open the
door.

I stopped and snapped my hand away from the
door as if I had been burned. Wait! What am I doing?? I felt my
senses come back as I ran away from the house at full speed.

I got back into my car and sped away, leaving
a long trail of mud and grass behind me.

Chapter
Seventeen

True to his word, dad took me out again and
taught me how to drive. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience; our
moods were hostile towards each other. I didn’t understand why he
was upset with me but I didn’t let that dissuade me from learning.
I was days away from turning sixteen, and Dad promised me a car for
my birthday but I didn’t get too excited. Maybe they thought I
would take off and go back to New York after I got a car?

My mother continued to have a blast with her
family. Aunt Rachel came by a lot with her kids. Mekayla was
alright but I didn’t care too much for Michael. Only nine years old
but I could see something bad behind his eyes and actions. He loved
doing things that hurt other people. Once, he purposefully threw a
baseball thru one of Grandpa’s sunroom windows. Since the window
was made from a special plastic, it was harder to fix. Grandpa
swatted the hell out of him for that one, but that didn’t stop this
little monster from lighting a large pile of leaves on fire.

I was upstairs, in my room with MeKayla. I
don’t know where the ‘grown ups’ were but I started to smell
something coming from my window. The smell filled up my room
quickly and I had no problem finding the source. Rage boiled in me
as I shouted down to my bratty cousin.

“Put those leaves out right now, Michael!” My
voice boomed from my window. Ready to pounce on the kid, I kept my
eyes on him as I stuck my head out the window, but he only looked
up at me and laughed. MeKayla came to my aide and told her brother
to put of the fire or else we would come down and make him.

“And I’m from New York, buddy!” My voice
barely shouted that out before I busted out into giggles. MeKayla
joined me.

Though he did put out the little fire, Aunt
Rachel never did anything to punish him when we told what Michael
did. She always lets the little monster slide, in my opinion.
MeKayla was alright enough, but I stayed away from Michael. Maybe
he would change when he got older? But I wasn’t going to hold my
breath!

Aunt Rachel was mystery to me. She talks and
acts like she and mom never parted. Like she never went off to
college, met dad and never came back, even after she had me. Maybe
I was as much of a mystery to her as she was to me. She didn’t
really talk to me very often. If I saw her, she would kindly ask me
how I was and if I like Lee. We always tiptoed around the fact that
I wanted to be home in New York. I continued to look for signs of
her dimple but never saw one. This was the same girl from the
pictures, wasn’t she?

During the day, Aunt Rachel worked as a Bank
Teller for one of the banks in Lee. It was a good job and she
appreciated the money it brought her. Twice divorced, my aunt sure
loved the men! I found out from MeKayla that Aunt Rachel use to
have a string of boyfriends in school and after. To this day, men
still flocked to my beautiful Aunt. Her laugh was infectious, her
smile fitting to her happy nature.

I had no idea what the other kids did during
the summer in this tiny town. Katie, Natalie and Becky were very
happy and came over one day to explore the house and grounds with
me. I found Katie’s friendship comforting. She was the only person
I could talk to around here. Jane and Renee were still on vacation
and though he got back from football camp a week ago, Jeff just
left for vacation with his family. I was still beginning to know
Nat and Becky, but they didn’t seem to want to know me. My not so
sweet sixteen birthday party was approaching as well.

As for Steven, it was so romantic. It started
raining when I went to see him that day I broke up with Jeff over
the phone. I was drenched from head to toe when I got out of my
car. I immediately drove to his house after I spun away from the
house. My shirt was ruined and my jeans would never fit right again
but it was worth it.

He opened the front door of his house just as
I shut my car door. We looked at each other thru the rain and knew
why I was here. Reason abandoned me once again and I ran to him.
Steven threw his arms around me in the middle of a Texas storm and
kissed me. It was the most wonderful, magical kiss that I’ve ever
had.

As far as the house and being haunted, I was
gone a lot so I wasn’t there to experience them. When anything
would happen, it would be at night. Maybe I had lots of anxiety
about being away from home, but I knew something was happening
here. Sometimes I think I will see something out of the corner of
my eye, but it turns out to be nothing. This house is pretty
spooky, especially at night. Little things would happen, like the
faucets would turn on by themselves, doors slamming shut when I
would be here alone, and whispers. Many times I tried to hear what
it was saying, but couldn’t hear distinctly. Dad would’ve blamed my
scary movies or something like that.

One night, I was taking a shower in Grandpa’s
bathroom. (I soon found out it has much better water pressure than
mine!) Mom and dad were with Grandpa in town, picking up some
takeout. I was still reeling from my Steven euphoria and singing in
the shower.

“Regina!” I heard someone call. It sounded
like my mom.

“I’m taking a shower mom!” I screamed loud so
she could hear. “I’ll be right out.”

“Okay!” Her voice answered, much closer than
before.

But when I got out of the shower, no one was
home. I checked every room and even the bathroom, but no one was
here. I knew I heard someone!

My dreams were still as intense as before. I
was having them pretty frequently now. As soon as I woke, I wrote
them down. My goal was to find all these places. They must be
connected somehow, but my new relationship with Steven and Katie
kept me pretty busy. We went to a lot of parties together. Steven
and I would spend hours kissing and touching each other in a
private room while everyone partied below us. We were completely
wrapped up in each other, but I never felt compelled to tell him
about my dreams and Lee.

After an intense dream one night, I started
reading my dream journal from front to back. I couldn’t put it
down. Seeing a pattern, I got a pen and paper and began taking
notes about my dreams. I began the journal about six years ago and
had over three quarters of the journal full. So far, I dreamed of
the house twenty seven times. I continued and found more patterns.
A man searching for me: thirteen times, the back roads: nineteen
times! The bus dream has occurred more than ten times. There was
more information to put together but I put it aside to decipher
during my stay.

-----

I was in a train depot, waiting for a train,
I think. Steven was standing beside me, holding my hand. He smiled
at me and I felt my heart fill with love for him.

The train pulled in front of us. Steven put
me on the train but it ended up being a plane. People around me
were panicking. One woman was jumping up and down to take off.

“Okay students. That was a great field trip.
We are on our way home. Fasten your seatbelts and we can take
off.”

Everyone began clicking themselves in while
I sat in confusion. We were on a field trip? Why would we be on a
plane?

The plane started to take off and the world
below us started crumbling. The ground was swallowing the depot,
the people, the building, everything. I was shocked and watched in
horror as the world below me exploded.

The plane went higher into the sky, we were
almost in space.

“Whew! Thank goodness we were on this
plane!” Came the teacher’s voice.

The plane landed somewhere safe. Everyone
began to get up and get off the plane. I noticed Steven was still
beside me. He smiled at me and took my hand again as we walked off.
We went home. Steven put me upstairs to be and said he would be
right back.

After he left, the water turned on in the
bathroom. I knew no one was here so I got up to go check. I passed
a room on my way and didn’t pay much attention to it. There wasn’t
anyone in the bathroom, so I shut off the water and the light. On
my way back, I looked into the room.

It was the room of my nightmares! The yucky
wood paneling, the wall of windows, the black leather furniture, it
was all here!

I woke up in a hot sweat and breathing hard.
I took a swig of water and calmed myself down. I took my journal
out and started writing. This book was getting fat pretty quickly.
I had to find out why I was dreaming about this town.

Last week, I spent two whole days in the
local library going thru their archives. The town had a pretty
interesting story but nothing to do with me or the places I’m
dreaming of. My investigations were going nowhere.

Chapter
Eighteen

It was the day of my sixteenth birthday. I
woke up with no excitement even though it was a Saturday and Katie
planned a huge party. Mom and dad never asked me what I wanted or
what we should do to celebrate. I took that as they didn’t care.
Katie, on the other hand, really cared. She went to great lengths
to plan a perfect party for me.

“We can use your Grandfather’s field! We can
push the party a couple of feet back, away from the house. It
shouldn’t disturb anyone.”

“Yes, I think Grandpa would be alright with
that. I’ll make sure it’s cool with him.”

“Alright, then that takes care of the place.
Leave the rest to me, I have it all planned out! Just let me know
if there’s anything you have to have there.”

“How about Jane and Renee? Can you have them
there?”

She looked at me like I was an idiot. “Yeah,
just let me reach into my black bag right here. Sorry sweetie, I’m
not a wizard!”

I wanted a car for my birthday but dad would
never buy me one while we lived here. So I asked them if Jane and
Renee could come for the weekend. They said yes but Jane nor wasn’t
Renee able to get here on the actual weekend of the party. Needless
to say, I was extremely disappointed.