Dream Walkers

Chapter 3: Goodbye (Samari)

Chapter song: The Cave -Mumford and Sons

Dad woke me early in the morning and dragged me all over town with him, to his office, the library, grocery store, and friends' houses, pretty much everywhere. He wasn't really good at staying in one place. I guess that explained his job. He worked for a transportation company which he was required to travel for every few weeks. Which meant I had to be alone for a whole week sometimes. Usually he asked Uncle Rob to come stay with me while he's gone.

Uncle Rob wasn't exactly my Uncle. He was just dad's best friend. He'd been there for my birth (in the delivery room) and there for mom's death. All the way through. Everything. Uncle Rob was the one who looked up information about periods and explained the whole menstrual cycle to me. He was the one who taught me to ride a bike, how to dance. He showed me how to play the guitar. I guess he was more like a dad to me because dad didn't know how to be. Uncle Rob just decided to take over for him, not that I minded.

The reason dad was dragging me all over town was because he wanted everything done before he left for his next trip to California. He would be gone longer this time so Uncle Rob was actually going to be staying at the house with me. I was excited to see Uncle Rob and make up on lost time with him. It had been weeks since I last saw him. He promised we would go bowling this time which was our favorite activity together.

Dad and I were carrying the last of the groceries into the house and Uncle Rob was jumping out of his car, a duffle bag big enough to stuff a body into, in hand. He dropped it to his feet with a loud thud and pulled me into a bear hug, "There's my little shrimp! God I've missed you."

I smiled at the familiar smell of vanilla wafting off of Uncle Rob, "I missed you too, giant." He kissed my cheek and let go of me carrying his large duffle bag in and attacked dad with a hug.

For the next hour we all packed dad up for his trip and finished cleaning up the house then drove dad down to the airport. Dad, not being good with goodbye, gave us each a quick hug and boarded the plane.

Uncle Rob wrapped an arm around me and steered me back to the car talking my ear off. He was one of those people who always had something to say. He was saying something about his philosophy on life. I'd heard it far too many times to focus on what he was actually saying. Something about Buddha and the earth's essence. Uncle Rob didn't ever really believe anything about what he was saying, but my dad told him to stop telling me bad things and tell me about things that won't get me in trouble. Dad only said that because Uncle Rob told me about things they did when they were in high school. Uncle Rob slipped those things in sometimes. He always said kids are supposed to learn from your mistakes, but they have to know what they are in order to learn.

For some reason I could really concentrate on Uncle Rob. Something was stuck in my mind like an old sticker stuck to paper that you can't get off without ripping the paper. I didn't know what it was though. The sticker was all smudgy and unclear. It was like there was something sitting in the very back of my mind just waiting to be found. I knew it didn't have anything to do with the lady in my dream, but it felt like it was about my dreams altogether. Like something was coming.

~ ~ ~

Most of the day had been filled with Uncle Rob running us around town to find fun things to do and him blabbering about nothing. When we finally got home he collapsed on the couch to nap and I went to my room. I set my jacket on my bed and sat at my desk.

My desk mostly consisted of random papers, a few books and my dream jar. The jar was filled with tons of tiny little papers rolled up and tied shut. Each one held the details of each precious dream from when I was eight years old. I dumped them out onto my desk and opened one up reading the description of a frail broken woman. I remembered it exactly.

The woman had walked out onto a bridge wearing a torn black shirt, dark blue jeans covered in dirt, broken in red converse, and a broken soul. Her face was blank like someone had reached inside of her and pulled out every emotion she possessed. I'd watched as she climbed onto the ledge and closed her eyes letting herself tip of the edge and fall into the dark rushing river. It reminded me of a slinky tumbling down the stairs into a dark basement, except it wasn't a slinky or a basement. It was a woman falling into an ice cold river. My body shivered.

I rolled the green slip of paper and placed it back into the jar, picking up a small blue one. Just as I opened it Uncle Rob appeared in my room grabbing it out of my hand. My stomach clenched waiting for him to be the same as dad and tell me they were just dreams. Uncle Rob peered over the paper at me skeptically. "Are these the dreams your dad told me about? They're pretty vivid... A boy strangled in his sleep. You have all these details... Are those all just dreams?" His eyes trailed over the papers spread on my desk and I nodded. His eyes knitted together as he handed the paper back. "That's pretty... startling."

It felt strange talking to Uncle Rob about the dreams. I knew he knew about them, but reading about the details was something I hadn't let anyone do. "I don't really want to talk about it..."

He nodded not knowing what to say himself I'm guessing. "I get it. How about some ice cream before bed?" He shot me a smile knowing dad would kill him for even suggesting it.

I smiled and nodded, "That sounds good to me."

Uncle Rob had this thing about making everything better with ice cream. For some reason it worked. This was what I needed. Something to distract me from everything brewing in my mind.