Grace (BWWM)

Chapter Forty-One

"Love," I hear Joe say in my sleep before his hand runs up and down my arm to wake me up.

"Hmm?"

"Your phone is going off." I open my eyes and notice how dark the room is. We've been in the library together, and at some point, we must have fallen asleep on the couch. I resigned from my job two days after our honeymoon, and it's been four months since then. During the four months, we moved into this house and are in the process of getting our old homes ready to rent out . We've also been spending even more time with one another, and it's been amazing, truly.

"What time is it?" I mumble. His hand fumbles around in the dark before he takes a hold of my phone on the table in front of us. The screen lights up, showing that it's half past three in the morning. I also see that it's Rose who is calling.

"Rose?" Joe murmurs, and we both sit up. He hands me the phone, and I answer it, fully awake now. Rose never calls at such odd times.

"Aunty." Worry and fear lace her voice, putting me on edge.

"Rose, are you okay? What is wrong?"

"I—it's—Aunty, I had a dream," she stammers. What sort of dream caused her to call me so early in the morning? And why me?

"It's Austin," she says, and my heart immediately sinks. That explains it.

"Austin?" I echo. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I see Joe's brow furrow and I see the worry on his face.

"What's wrong with Austin?" he asks.

"Rose said she had a dream," I explain.

"Is that Uncle Joe? Could you put me on speaker phone?"

"I—yes," My hand shakes a bit as I do that.

"Good morning, Uncle Joe."

"Rose, yes, good morning, you said you had a dream? About Austin?" he says, not wanting to waste time with pleasantries.

"Yes, I had a dre—"

"What was it?" I cut in.

"We—we were together somewhere, just standing side by side. And I remember . . . " she lets out a breath ". . . he just turned to me and gave me this soft smile." Her voice gets thick.

"I smiled back, but the realization dawned on me that he wasn't just smiling just to smile. He kissed my head and then he turned away. And I just—" Her words are cut off by a cry. "I watched as the scene that was bright before became dark and he . . . Austin walked away into the darkness. I woke up before I could even do anything. Something is going on now and I don't know what it is. I would check up on him, but I know that I would only want to go to his home, and I can't. So I called you, Aunty." She stifles her cries enough to give us her request. "Could you call him and check up on him, please?"

We don't need to be asked twice. Joe leaves to get his phone and I calm Rose down before we pray together, not knowing what the situation is. It's clear to me that God showed her this dream on purpose. I'm grateful for His divine intervention and we just need His help on how to approach this situation. We can't do it without Him.

Joe comes back into the library, flicking on the lamp at the table.

"I don't know where my phone is." he says, his eyes darting around. His hands fly to the pockets of his sweatpants, but he comes up with nothing. He goes from place to place, searching desperately.

"It's okay, let's use mine. Rose, we'll have to let you go. We will definitely let you know how everything goes."

"Thank you, Aunty," she sniffles. "Thank you too, Uncle."