She Is His

Planes and Memories

Jessie had a thought of Dream, relaxing on her porch swing while she was up to her elbows in a single prop engine. The owner had brought the plane in, complaining about the engine spluttering and dying while in the hanger. This Cessna 172 looked to be in good running condition on the surface, so the problem had to run deeper. She was dissecting the problem when she heard a ruffling of feathers.

A sleek, black raven had landed on the rise hood of the plane. Jessie recalled a raven from her dream. She eyes the bird suspiciously. The raven simply stared back.

"I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Matthew." The raven spoke. Jessie whipped her head around to see where the other people were at in the repair bay. Luckily, the rest of the mechanics were on the other side.

"You can speak?" She whispered as Matthew jumped to the body of the plane. Matthew's presence was evidence that her dream was real.

"Yea. I used to be human. After I died, Lucienne made me a raven so Boss would not travel alone." Matthew shared, toeing one of the hoses to the engine. "That seems a bit brittle to me."

Fingering the same hose, "Me too. Who is Boss?"

"Oh, Dream. I just call him Boss, because he is the Boss." Matthew remarked, jumping on the engine block. "So, you fix planes?"

"Yes, and this one is an unravelling mess. On the outside, it looks good. Under the surface, it is shitstorm." Jessie huffed, pulling out a filthy air filter. "Why did my name get the reaction that it did? What did Dream mean that I have returned home?"

"Well, Jessamy was the name of Dream's raven companion before me. She had been at his side since the beginning of time. We are talking like eons. She was killed somehow, while trying to free Dream from his imprisonment." Matthew explained while hopping about the engine.

"He was imprisoned?" Jessie asked.

"For one hundred years or so." Matthew answered. "He has only been free for the last three years now."

Jessie shivered. She hated the thought of Dream captured and locked away. An image flashed from the deep recesses of her mind; a glass sphere held together with steel. Inside, there was Dream in a seated position, staring ahead unblinking.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the image, Jessie pulled out a flashlight to look inside. She found pieces of the air filter and other debris. There was oil that was as black as Matthew's wings.

"He believes that you are the mortal reincarnation of Jessamy. That is why he said you have returned home." Matthew responded to the second part of Jessie's questions.

Jessie gripped the flashlight tighter. A reincarnation of a raven; was such a thing possible? Yet, it wasn't just an ordinary bird, but the raven of the King of Dreams.

"Oddly enough, being a bird in my past life would make sense. I am happiest when my feet are in the air. My mama could not keep me out of the trees. I had my pilot's licenses before my driver's. I was flying my uncle's crop duster when I got tall enough to see out of the cockpit window. And the fact, every night I would be in the darkness with Dream. I did not know he really existed; let alone who he truly was. I just thought he was my starry-eyed man."

"He is, in a way, yours." Matthew replied. "You having the visions of Dream meant something. Just don't ask me what. I don't have those answers." Jessie smiled. The idea that he was for her made Jessie feel in a way that she never felt before. It was a good feeling.

"Jessie." Her boss called to her as he came walking over. Matthew took off, leaving Jessie alone. "How is that engine looking?"

"Well." Jessie started while showing her boss everything Matthew and she found. "The bill just tripled."

Dream returned to his realm to find Lucienne holding the dream journal that could shed light on this new situation.

"She wasn't lying, sir. Last night was her first dream." She opened the book which was very thin. A single entry and the date were for the night before.

"How is this possible?" Dream took the light book in his hands. Not a single entry before. No dreams as a baby or child. Every night she spent in the darkness until she woke the next day. Only with a vision of him, that she what she told him. She told him that the vision could not speak, and she could not get close to him. She explained that she always felt that there was a force between them that neither of them could pass through.

"Maybe she had a mental block that prevented her from entering the dreaming before. Now the block is gone." Lucienne pondered, taking the book back and reshelving it.

"She went looking for me and found a doorway." Dream whispered, recalling what Jessie told him on their walk to the castle.

"Perhaps, sir." Lucienne started, returning. "Now the question that needs to be answer is, is she really the reincarnation of our Jessamy?"

"She is." Dream proclaimed, turning to Lucienne. "I feel her inside Jessie. Now that she has come to the dreaming, she will start to remember her life with me, here. I fear, she will also remember her death."

"Do you think she will want to be a raven again?"

"I hope not." Dream replied, remembering her touch as her fingers trailed down his cheek and the warmth of her body when he pulled her into his.

Dream took his leave to attend to matters of a small nightmare terrorizing a daycare. Lucienne watched him go. Her thoughts were on Jessie and Jessamy. The same spirit with two different lives. "No matter what, she is his."