DREAM SMASHERS

Dream Smashers -- Chapter 19

DREAM SMASHERS

NINETEEN

She’s light as air. Evan will never let her fall. Holding her, he swings her about. Round and round they go. She laughs. He laughs.

            “This is crazy. I’m totally dizzy,” she cries.

            They stop.

            “I can’t believe you caught me. I was totally ready to hit the ground face first.”

            “If I didn’t get in your way, I’m sure you would have.” Evan sets her down.

            She dashes for the merry-go-round. “Come on. Since you’re so keen on spinning, I’ll take you for one now.”

            “I thought you were dizzy.” He shouts and runs full speed to catch up with her.

            “I am. But you’re not. Wow, you’re uber fast. Weren’t you just way back there by the swings?”

            “Yep. Sure was.”

            “Ah, that’s right, you run. Well, I’m impressed Mr. Speed Angel.” She grabs the cold medal bar and spins the merry-go-round, then hops on and lies supine on the cold metal base. Evan pushes it gently and steps on, sitting next to her.

            “Look.” She points up to the sky. “The clouds are breaking up and you can totally see the stars.”

            He sprawls out from under the handle bars, feeling the ice-metal through his jacket. Thousands of stars twinkle through the torn clouds. “When we were younger, my parents sent us to church camp every summer. We sometimes drug our sleeping bags out of the cabins to sleep under the stars. I’d never seen so many in my life. It was like—like we were discovering something new that no one in the world had ever seen.” He turns to his side to look at her. “Have you ever been camping out in the woods?”

            “Not real camping, but me and Rainy used to sleep in the backyard with our sleeping bags in the summer when we were younger.” She laughs under her breath. “Gramps would build us a campfire and we’d roast marshmallows. It was fun, but probably not as fun as out in the woods.”

            “I think you’d love real camping.” Maybe he’ll take her sometime. He didn’t dare be so bold yet to say something like that though.

            The light from the street lamp oozes into the park, allowing some visibility, but not much. Autumn gazes straight up into the sky as fog rolls over them. She doesn’t move.

            “Isn’t fog funny?” she asks.

            “How do you mean?”

            “It’s just strange. One minute it’s over there and the next it’s totally on top of you. You know? And it’s water in the air, and it’s blinding. Real water is clear, but fog is—well, foggy.”

            He doesn’t want to burst her bubble by explaining the science behind fog, so he won’t. It does seem mystical when you don’t know the reasons for it. Instead, he jumps off the whirling piece of steel and gives it another push before hopping back on.

            The faint sound of metal brushing against metal makes for a backdrop against the silence.

            He watches her watching the sky. Every few seconds the fog opens up for a moment and he sees her more clearly. Mostly, she’s a shadow penetrating the air.

            “There’s something I need to tell you before you meet my parents,” Evan says.

            Autumn sits up. “What is it?”

            “Well, not both my parents, just my mom. She…” He pauses to regain some of the nerves that must have just run away without warning him. “She thinks I’m too young to have a girlfriend and might not be the nicest person in the world toward you.” There he said it, really fast, but it’s out in the open and now he can hold his breath again.

            Autumn laughs and then bites her lip, seeming uneasy. “How rude is that?” She picks up a bark chip and traces the designs punched into the metal she sits on. “So, like, how mean will she be to your, uh, girlfriend?”

            Evan stuffs his hands into his jeans. Now he’s in the hot seat. He called her his girlfriend, but he probably shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. The merry-go-round squeaks to a stop. There’s nothing he can do now, it’s out in the open. Just have to go with it. “She’s not going to hurt you or anything, just maybe ignore you and pretend you’re not there.” He jumps off and gives the twirling beast another spin.

            “That’s it?” She tosses the bark. “As long as she doesn’t yell at me or spit at me or shoot me, I think I can handle her ignoring me.”

            Evan breathes. Maybe she doesn’t mind him calling her his girlfriend. “Don’t take it personally. The more she ignores you, the more she thinks I like you.” Whew. That wasn’t so bad. He sits cross-legged in front of Autumn. His knees leave a half-inch of air in front of hers.

            She blushes and looks away, smiling. Then, her smile vanishes. “How are you always so free?”

            Evan shrugs. “What do you mean?”

            She scoots another half an inch back. “You always seem so happy and without worry. Like, like you have no cares in the world to weigh you down. I’m not sure exactly how to explain it, but every time I see you, you just seem so—so, carefree.”

            Evan takes a moment before answering this one. He searches for a simple answer to her complicated question. It needs to sound easy—well, it is easy. “I have faith. That’s the reason I seem carefree. But, don’t get me wrong, because I do care. I care a lot.”

            She’s quiet.

            He stands and gives another spin. This time he sits on the handle bars.

            She says, “Faith? You mean your religion?”

            “I mean I have faith in God, in Jesus. I have given my worries and burdens over to Jesus. He takes them from me and deep down I know everything will be okay—”

            “What? You give your worries to Jesus? That totally doesn’t make sense.”

            “Why not?”

            “How can you possibly just give your worries away? If I worry about someone, like Grams or Rainy or even Jacinda, it’s because I care for them. I care what might happen to them—”

            “Yes, of course you do. I understand. What good has worry ever gotten, though? Has it helped your Grams any? Has worrying about your mom made her life any easier—or yours?”

            The fog thins enough to see her face. Her eyebrows furrow, like she’s thinking.

            “Well, no. I guess worrying hasn’t helped. But, how do you stop worrying?”

            “You know the story about Jesus, right?”

            “Yeah, I think so. He died for our sins and stuff.”

            “That’s exactly right. Jesus died for us. He wiped our slate clean of all sin, but only if we accept him into our lives and hearts. Once you do this, surrender yourself to him, you are saved.”

            Autumn’s face puckers. She must be thinking again. Evan jumps off the merry-go-round and gives it another whirl, hoping he didn’t just kill all chances with her.