The Dream Jumper's Promise

Chapter 20

            “You can sleep in the bed, Jamey. There’s lots of room.” She said it so casually. He agreed. A few days earlier, they’d shared the bed. “Okay, but I’ll take the side closest to the door.” If Noble was slipping drugs in her drink and raping her, this game just leapt to a whole new level.

           

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            Tina and Jamey woke to the noise of the doorknob jiggling, then Noble’s voice. “Tina? Tina, open the door.” He pounded against the barrier as his voice rose to a frantic pitch.

            She lifted her head off the pillow and noticed the clock. 7:04. She didn’t need to open the shop today. “Noble, what is it?” Jamey lay awake on his back, fully-clothed on top of the covers, watching her.. His jaw was clenched and she could imagine what he was thinking.

            “Tina, open up. I just saw Jamey’s car out there.”

            She sat up in bed. “Noble, relax. You are waking me because you saw a jeep?”

            “I don’t trust him.”

            “Oh my God, Noble. There are loads of yellow jeeps on this island.” Tina was glad she’d locked the door. Noble was becoming more of a problem with every hour. “Start coffee. I’ll be out in a few minutes now that you woke me.”

            Jamey lay still while Tina shot him an apologetic look. “Headache?” she mouthed.

            He shook his head slightly and sprang silently off the bed.

            By the time Tina got to the door, Jamey was hiding in the closet. Maybe he didn’t have a headache, but she had a whopper. Ibuprophen would be the next thing she swallowed before coffee. Her mouth was dry and her head felt like it was stuffed with soggy insulation. She hated this feeling.

            When she returned to the bedroom Jamey was gone. Had he jumped out the window with his soldier moves? All of this was getting to be too much and now Noble was lecturing her about taking a break from Maui. Her parents must have gotten to him because he sounded convinced that she was under too much stress. “Get off the rock for awhile,” he’d said.

            All Tina really needed was to find Hank’s body. She did not need a break from Maui.

Pulling on a pair of patterned board shorts and a T-shirt, she felt the room drop in temperature. The windows were open but the curtains weren’t fluttering. This coolness came from inside the room. And it was not pleasantly cool, like an early morning Maui breeze. More like swimming into a cold patch of water. Acutely alert, Obi whined and sniffed the air. His unrest suggested it wasn’t her imagination. Tina looked around the room. She waited. Did this have something to do with Jamey?

            A tingling sensation crept up her spine like a centipede headed for her neck. Then the temperature returned to normal and Obi trotted out the bedroom door and raced for the deck. He wagged his tail looking down the long driveway in anticipation.

            Later she’d ask Jamey. Maybe dream jumps robbed the room of heat. Tina knew nothing about it, but if she was going crazy on top of this new skill, then she seemed to be taking Jamey with her. Thank goodness for friends. Finally she had someone to accompany parts of her insanity.