Chapter 2

"It was in the stars..."

I watched the clock across the room from my bed, and found that by really staring at it, time would appear to speed up. The clock hands circled twice. It should now be noon... June 19th.

I went outside, and quickly investigated the newspaper. It was a different issue, and the date was indeed the 19th.

I found that once I had "been" somewhere in my mind, I could instantly transport myself back there later. I was set to transport myself back to my room, when I noticed Lt. Cadley walking into the main entrance!

I quickly transported myself back to my room, and then focused my attention on the clock, and on the door to my room. The hands started to speed up again, when the door opened. I slowed down the time, and watched Lt. Cadley enter my room.

"I see we're still sleeping today, huh?" she asked my body in a soft voice.

Not surprisingly, my body didn't move in response.

"I start my new job next week, Jim. Manager at the night shift at Burdine's." She was talking to me as if I could hear her. Well, I could, but not in the way that she thought.

"I'll get a 10% discount on purchases there," she continued. She must visit me an awful lot to carry on such a conversation. However, I knew that I had never met her in person.

She talked about many things... her new job, her sister coming south to meet her in a few weeks. Mary was particularly animated, and, as it turned out, pretty interesting as well. I found myself drawn into her conversation...

All too soon, she got up to leave. "Well, Jim. It was nice talking to you. You know, I just know that somehow, you are listening to me. The nurses seem to think that you can hear me, and even if you can't, it helps a lonely girl like me to have somebody to talk to."

She looked to the door, and the nurse entered.

"Still no change, Mary," the nurse said, shaking her head. "I know that someday... he'll come out of it..."

"I know he will. I made a promise to visit every day, and I'm damn well gonna do so until he wakes up."

The nurse gave her a slight smile, and quietly left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Lt. Cadley... Mary... bent over my sleeping form and planted a little kiss on my cheek.

"Have a nice day, Jim. One of these days, I wish you'll be able to come home with me."

She got up and left.

I looked at my sleeping body, and suddenly the word COMA formed in my mind. I was in a bloody coma! For seven fuckin' years!

I needed to get out of there... but where?

Wait! Lt. Cadley said something about inviting me home with her...

I transported myself to the main entrance, hoping she hadn't already left the hospital.

I hovered a couple of inches above the newspaper machine, watching people going in and out of the main entrance.

Well, if I missed her today, I'll see her tomorrow. She said she visited me every day...

There she was! She had her pocket book slung over her shoulder. I watched, mesmerized, as she walked past, and I realized that I might lose her.

I quickly followed her, and then forced my "presence" to anchor itself right about her handbag.

She got into her car, and put the handbag (with me) on the seat next to her. She went to turn the key in the ignition and her hand started shaking...

"Oh, Jim!" she cried. "You've GOT to get better. I can't stand to see you there, not responding to anything." She turned toward me, which startled me completely. She was going into her handbag. I moved my presence away from her purse, but still on the seat.

She fumbled around in her purse and found a tissue. She dabbed at her eyes, and blew her nose. Taking a deep breath, she reached for the key again, and turned it. The engine roared into life.

Who was this Lt. Mary Cadley? I tried to recall if I had ever known such a person. Did I have amnesia? Many questions went through my head as we started driving off.

My mind went introspective again, and I tried to dig up some memory... anything... about a Lieutenant Mary Cadley, and I continued to come up empty.

I noticed that her purse was gone, and I looked around, desperate to find her. We were parked in a garage, and I saw her walking toward a door that led indoors.

We were near the harbor, and I could sense that we were near a restaurant. I became acutely aware that I couldn't smell anything, expecting the fishy smells that surround such a place, but I could still sense that we were near the waterfront.

I followed her, and she walked into a side door into a building. I didn't recognize the building, since I never frequented this part of town before.

We were in a restaurant kitchen, and once again I was acutely aware of not having the sense of smell. She went into a tiny office, and put her purse onto a chair.

I shifted my point of view and looked out through the restaurant. It was a seafood place, and the joint was about a quarter full. I found a patron that had just been seated, and was looking over the menu a bit when I noticed Mary Cadley walking toward us.

She was a waitress!

I found a vantage spot where I could watch her and most of the restaurant. After a little while, though, I got bored, and transported myself to her car. There was a clock in there, and the time read just 1:00.

I stared at the clock, watching the hands move quickly...

It was 7:05, and the car was in motion. I looked next to me, and Mary was driving the car. Her purse was on the floor under the seat where my presence was hovering.

She was intent on the road, and eventually pulled into a little parking lot outside a small apartment complex.

She used her key to open the door to the complex, and then walked up a flight of stairs and opened her apartment door. She flipped on the light, and walked directly into the bathroom. Of course, I followed her into the apartment.

While she was using her toilet, I looked around her apartment.

There were a few well-thumbed books on her bookshelf. I didn't recognize any of the names of the authors, though.

I floated into her kitchen, and noted how nice and clean the entire apartment was. It definitely had a woman's touch to it.

I froze as I realized that she had just walked right through me... it was something that I figured that I'd have to learn how to live with, or how to avoid.

She was dressed in a robe; I couldn't tell if she had anything on underneath it. Funny, I remembered a time before when seeing a woman in a robe like that would get me horny, but I had no such feelings at this time. Probably just as well... I had no equipment with which to act on such feelings.

She opened her refrigerator and pulled out a can of Diet Coke. Then she left the kitchen, and curled up onto the large easy chair in the living room. I noticed that the television was on.

I watched her, and the television, for a bit, but I didn't recognize the shows or the people in them. I guess time must have sped up for me, because the next thing I knew, she was yawning and stretching and the television was off.

She got up from her chair and headed toward her bedroom, adjusting the dimmer on the wall to make the light in the living room very dim.

I debated whether to go into the bedroom with her... after all, she'd had already been in MY bedroom at the hospital. I must have thought for a while, because when I went into the room, there was a digital clock next to her bed that read 2:12 AM.

She had left the door to her bedroom open, and I could just make out her features in the dim light from the living room. She was asleep.

I felt the desire to give her a kiss. I got closer... closer... closer... and then realized that I didn't have any lips! Still, I went closer until...

I felt strange. One second, I was floating above her bed, the next second, I was laying down, stretched out, underneath some covers. I didn't see her any more... just colors.

Then I saw an image of Mary, running in a park. This wasn't the Mary that I knew... it was a very young Mary... eight or nine years old. She was playing with... Mommy! Her mommy! I knew this was her mommy... just as I knew that the young girl was Mary. I could hear the squeals of her laughter in her mind.

It occurred to me that somehow, in her dreams, we had merged together.

I watched her dream, fascinated.

The little girl disappeared, and she was now back at the restaurant. She had given her notice today that she was taking the job at a department store in the mall...

That scene played out, and another one took its place.

It was a dark night, and something told me that something was wrong here.

Mary was driving... it was a pretty dark night. Mary could feel the breeze... the windows must have been open in her car. It occurred to me that this was the first time in a while that I could actually "feel" something, even though it was somebody else's experience.

In her dream, Mary looked out the windshield and saw a crescent moon, partially obscured by clouds. There was something about the way the moon and the clouds looked that seemed very familiar to me, but I couldn't place it.

She wasn't really paying attention to the road, when all of a sudden, she heard a terrible thud. She hit the brakes quickly, not knowing what she hit.

I could feel her body shaking, and noticed it wasn't the dream, it was her actual body shaking. I could feel it!

Back in the dream, she pulled a flashlight out of the floor behind her driver's seat, and went outside to find out what kind of animal she hit. She flashed it on the front of the car... it was a jeep... and found the entire bumper was crimson with blood.

Her heart sank, and she thought it must be some large dog. How would she explain this to the owner?

She walked to the right side of the vehicle, and shined the light. There was a big puddle of blood, with a carcass in the middle of it a few feet behind the car. She walked quickly toward the animal, and noticed that this animal was wearing an officer's uniform...