Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 107 - Entertaining Company

To Greg's relatives from New York, visiting the Abernathys' cottage immediately after watching The Tropical Dream was a bit like going to Disneyland. To them, it looked like a life sized representation of a movie set. Even inside they could see the resemblance to the structure depicted in the film.

"Except the cottage in the movie didn't have a kitchen, or a bathroom, and the floor was made of dirt," Matt pointed out.

"The original didn't have a kitchen or a bathroom, Matt," Susan said.

"Then where did you cook when you lived there?" Ashley asked in surprise.

"Outside," Jessie told her. "Mama had this enormous pot that hung over the fire ... there was this really flat rock over part of it. We cooked on that."

"How long did you live there?" Oliver asked.

"Until I was born," Zack said. "Our cottage burned down right after my brit."

"Do you remember it?" Malcom asked.

"Yes and no. I remember bits of it, but I mostly know that because Mom and Greg told me the story before," Zack said.

"Then you were the baby who died in the fire," Ali said.

"Yup," Zack agreed. "It was hard to grow up in those days."

"You were the baby twice," Oliver observed.

"I was ... but I've gotten to live other times," Zack told him.

"How do you know that?" Megan asked.

"I have dreams too ... different from Mom and Greg's. So does my girlfriend. Some of ours overlap like theirs do, but not all of them do," Zack said.

"So you listened to what your mom and Uncle Jacob said and began putting your own story together," Malcom said.

"Yes," Zack agreed. "We're still working on it ... but it's slowly getting clearer."

"How do you do that?" Megan asked.

"You put yourself in places like what you dream about. For us, it's tunnels and caves. We do our best remembering there," Zack said.

"What about for you, Jessie?" Megan asked.

"Caves work for me and Bert too, but sometimes it works to go to a church," Jessie told her.

"Why a church?" Megan asked in surprise.

"Something happened to us there," Jessie said vaguely.

"I get that ... but why don't you like remembering when we're in the cave?" Ashley asked.

"Because, the memories are really clear when Bert and me are together in our cave. I don't want him getting so caught up in our memories he forgets to live. He does that sometimes," Jessie told the other girls. "I'm trying to keep it from happening again."

"But you do have to remember in order to learn from what your dream is showing you," Oliver said. "At least that's what I got from the first part of Uncle Jacob's movie."

"Yes, you do, but only to learn from them. My life is here now. My opportunity to succeed is here ... not long ago. This is where we need to focus our efforts and pay attention to what we do," Jessie said seriously.

"Listen and do," Melody said, nodding eagerly. "Tell him, Jessie. Not only listen. Tell Bert."

"I'm trying, Melody. But Bert doesn't always listen to me," Jessie said with a frown.