The Dreaming: Dark Star (Book 5)

Old Shalon's story, part 1

         

We had dinner, in the clearing where we'd originally met, sitting in the grass. I felt much more relaxed. I had to say hello to a lot of people, shake a lot of hands and even hug a few strangers. The children who'd come with us were indistinguishable from the children who'd been here. Even Nicole seemed relaxed and content, circling around Lyle and I, but not overly sticky. She kept mostly quiet, but once in a while, Isaw her laughing from behind the white fluffly sleeve that she still kept habitually in front of her mouth.

Dinner was a simple affair—potatoes in some sort of vegetable broth, but there was plenty of it and I was satisfied. After dinner, a big fire was lit in the pit at the centre of the clearing and, true to his word, Blue Jay gave his speech.

"Today we welcomed forty-nine new members of our community. Let's give them a hearty welcome!" The crowd of a few hundred people broke out into thunderous applause and I couldn't help but smile as a thrill of contagious excitement and happiness flooded me.

When the applause died down, Blue Jay continued. "We don't have a lot of rules here, but if you break the rules, the punishment is the same: you must leave the community. We're building something special here and everyone is welcome, but everyone is expected to contribute. We don't give orders—you choose how and when you want to help, but everyone must help. There's no free ride here. In the morning, all of the new people will meet up here after breakfast and Missy and Sam here," at this, two young adults stood up and waved at the crowd, "We'll go over the various tasks that need to be done to give you an idea of how you can help...."

There were a few other announcements. And the rules were simple:

"No violence whatsoever. People can fight, but only if both people talk to me first and tell me that they want to fight each other. We recommend fighting in other ways, and I'm happy to act as a judge to any problems that come up. However, if you want to fight, feel free, just make sure it's mutual. If someone physically harms someone else in anger, in any way, then you only get one warning. If it happens a second time, you get booted out."

The other rule was no stealing, and the punishment was the same.

When Blue Jay was finished, he introduced me, and then sat down.

There was a silence as I walked slowly to the centre of the crowd. I was in no rush to get started, as I sat next to Blue Jay on a log near the big fire in the middle of the field. I felt a bit nervous, which confounded me a little. I should've been too old to be nervous. I always thought that I would be one of those old ladies who never gave a shit about what anyone would think. I guess in some sense that was true, but in some ways I was more sensitive than I had ever been. Recalling the last few weeks, I must have cried at least once a day, if not more.

I took my time to gather my thoughts. I wasn't in any rush. I don't like public speaking, but I've never been one to shy away from it either. What did I want to tell them?

One thing I knew was that I wanted to leave things on a positive note. But what kind of positive note was there? From my perspective, there wasn't really any. But... from the looks of what I'd seen today, these people were happy. Why were they happy? Because... because... maybe because they felt a sense of purpose? I wanted to capture something of that, and reflect it back to them in my story, but my loss over the last few weeks was heavy and hurt. Michael, my books....

After thinking about it for a while, I decided to just clear the air, and see what came out of that. "Hello, my name is Shalon," I began.

"Hi Shalon," a chorus went up. Some people yelled Welcome, a few people hooted. There was some applause. It flustered me, but I continued.

"I guess some of you know me from our... dreams—."

"Oh yes, we do!" a man hollered from the back of the crowd, and everyone roared with laughter. I blushed and looked down. Was he insinuating something—or were they just being friendly? My stomach twisted in a knot of anxiety. It was like the old days when I used to drink—sometimes I'd end up doing ridiculous, embarrassing things in a blackout and not remember. I'd wake up with that same sickening feeling I had right now. Had I done something stupid?

But then Blue Jay put his arm around me. I looked up at him, and the smile on his face, illuminated by the firelight behind me, put me at ease. They weren't laughing at me—I wasn't sure exactly why they were laughing, but Blue Jay was trying to make it clear that it was good natured. He nodded for me to continue and flashed his big bushy eyebrows.

I lifted my head to the crowd, a thin-lipped smile on my face. I exhaled and began again, "As I said, I guess I'm a bit infamous over in that otherworldly realm, but you'll have to forgive me, because in this world, I don't remember much about any of you. Well... I remember Blue Jay a little bit." I looked down, embarrassed. The crowd was thankfully silent.

Blue Jay squeezed my shoulder, his arm still wrapped around me. To anyone else it might look like he was trying to keep me warm, but I knew the truth.