Hidden Dreams

Chapter 21 - Visions and Friends

“Are you ready?” John asked Susan after supper that evening.

“I think so,” Susan answered. “If you’ll excuse me …”

“Susan, where are you going?” Greg asked. “It’s completely dark out.”

“Exactly the right time to do this,” she told him and she went out through the front door.

Greg followed her curiously out onto the porch, watching as she picked up the sack she’d put discretely away in the corner early that morning, before setting out into the darkness armed with only the sack, some matches and a shovel.

“John, do you know what she’s going to do?”

“Just watch,” John told him.

So Greg watched from the porch, just outside the cottage, looking out in the direction across the stream. Even with the moon out, it was quite a while before he saw anything. Then as they’d suggested, he saw the beginnings of a bon fire.

“Excuse me,” Greg said as he left the cottage headed towards it.

“Me too, Papa,” Jessie said as she left the cottage holding his hand.

John and Karen stood in the darkness of their cottage watching their friends headed out towards the flames.

“I wish we could go,” Karen told her husband.

“Surely you’re not up to it,” John told her.

“I probably could. It’s not all that far,” Karen answered.

“What about the baby?”

“We’ll take him with us,” Karen told him. “Not all the way … I don’t want us near the smoke but just down by the stream so we can see.”

“Okay,” John agreed as he saw the flames climb higher.

c

Greg headed in the direction of the climbing flame with Jessie holding his hand. Together they crossed the little stream in the darkness, headed for the circle of light directly ahead. There were people moving about it Greg realized as they drew closer, one of whom was his wife. He and Jessie stopped a short distance away, watching as they saw Susan bend to pick up the sack she’d brought with her and throw it in the flames. There was a sizzling, crackling sound for a few minutes and the smell of meat barbequing and suddenly Greg understood. He walked forward silently and without saying anything, he took Susan’s hand.

Susan smiled, leaning into him as he did, while Jessie came to hug her from the other side. Together the three of them stood in front of the flames and watched the sack burn.

A short distance away, another family of three stood by the trickle of water that made up the stream, watching the fire in the distance, and the silhouette of their friends standing there.

“John, what do you suppose it is about the three of them and fire?” Karen asked.

“What do you mean?” John asked.

“Well, Jessie’s father was killed in a fire. She still paints pictures of it in art, so I know she remembers it. And Susan told us once she has nightmares about fires. Then today didn’t I hear Greg say something about a fire too? Around the time he passed out?” she asked.

“I do think I heard something like that,” John agreed as he stood with his arm around his wife while she held their baby.

“Isn’t that just odd?” Karen said.

“It is a strange coincidence,” John agreed.

“So … do you think it means something?”

“I don’t know Karen. It may. But you know what seems stranger to me?”