Chapter 35: Truth and Consequences

Allison and I looked at each other for a moment. It was time. Allison set her fork down, turned and put her hand on Shannon's.

"Shannon." Something in her voice instantly got the girl's attention. Shannon stopped and swallowed hard as their eyes met.

"What? Did I say something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

I set down my own fork, stood and moved around to where she was sitting. I took her hand and pulled her to her feet. I could feel the tension and knew she was starting to panic. Not knowing what she had done to spark this sudden change. She started to shake as I hugged her to me. I stroked her hair and said, "No, sweetie. You didn't do anything wrong. Come with me."

I walked her back to the living room. Allison rose and followed. I sat her in Mom's rocker and knelt at her feet, still holding her hand. Allison knelt next to me and placed her hand on top of ours. By now I could see tears forming in Shannon's eyes as she struggled to understand what was happening.

"Shannon," I began, "there is something we need to tell you, something that we have been holding back from you. But before we do we need to make sure that you understand something, several things actually. First of all, we love you. That is the most important thing you need to understand in all of this. Second is that this is a long story and it will take time to get through all of it. We need you to be patient and listen to the whole thing. Once you've heard it all you will understand why we have been holding it back."

Allison took over, "If you start to get confused just focus on the fact that we love you. We feel bad about not telling you sooner but once you know the whole story I think you will understand why. And remember that not telling you has been very hard for us. Can you do this for me, sweetie? Can you be patient and remember I love you? And Jimmy loves you too, maybe even more than I do except I don't know how anyone could love you more than me? Can you be patient and listen to everything first?"

"Guys," Shannon whimpered, "you're scaring me. What's wrong?" Tears began to leak down her face.

I grabbed a tissue and handed it to her as Allison continued, "Don't be scared, sweetie. I'm sorry there is no quick way to do this; you just need to be patient and listen. Can you do that for me? Please?"

Shannon dabbed at her eyes. "Okay."

"That's my girl." Allison said, kissing Shannon's hand. "One other thing, what we're about to tell you no one else can know. Only two other people in the world know about it, well three but I'm not sure if one really counts. Remember the night you had the first dream with Jimmy, the one in the garage?"

"Yeah."

I took a deep breath, "It was real."

She looked at me with a very confused expression. "What do you mean it was real? It was a dream it couldn't be real."

"Yes and no. It was a dream, so from that stand point it wasn't real. But Jimmy was in it so that part was real."

"I don't understand."

"Jimmy really was there in your dream. Shannon, this is going to be hard to understand but the Jimmy in your dream was actually Jimmy."

"I don't get it."

"That's okay." I said. "Let's start further back. Shannon, I'm a sleepwalker. You know how Mom and Dad say they used to always find me in Allison's room? Well, I don't just walk around physically. In fact I almost never do anymore. I walk around in dreams, mostly Allison's, and, until you, only Allison's. She realized it years ago; I didn't realize it until that night in your garage. Shannon, I move around in other people's dreams."

"He's been doing it with me since I can remember. If I had a bad dream, he would come to chase it away and comfort me. Other times he just came to play. Oh how we played." She stroked my arm. "He was my knight in shining armor, my pirate captain, you name it. We went everywhere together. Over time I learned to tell the difference between just dreaming about Jimmy or if it was really him there."

"When I'm in a dream a lot of the time I am just watching, kind of like an invisible audience. That's how it started out that first night with you. But when you kissed me, suddenly that changed."

"Yeah, remember how you told me it seemed different from the times you had dreamed about kissing him before? When you kissed him, he stopped being an observer and took over the Jimmy in your dream. That's why the kiss was different, because this time it wasn't just you dreaming about how he would kiss, it was really him controlling it. That made it different. And you realized it was different but couldn't figure out how. From that moment on Jimmy was real, even though it was a dream."

"You're joking, right? I mean, how could he be real in a dream?"

"We don't know how it happens?" I said. "That was the first time I ever realized that I could do it. But when I woke up the dream just didn't make sense. I would never in a million years have realized that you actually felt that way about me. I had only just that day realized that you had grown up into such a beautiful woman," I blushed, "and I certainly would have never thought you would have those kinds of thoughts about me. The only explanation was that it wasn't my dream. As soon as I realized that several things from the past came to mind and I realized that I had been doing it with Allison, I mean, not DOING it, but moving in and out of her dreams, for years. The next day she told me you had talked to her about the dream and she already knew what had happened. That she had known about it for years but since it was just us she just left it alone. But that now that I had jumped into someone else's dream that I had to start being more careful."

"Yeah, it really blew his mind that I knew about it. At first he tried to deny it but I made it clear that wasn't going to work. Shannon, his first thought, the very first thing he wanted to do, and the first time he ever went to someone's dream on purpose was to go back and make sure that you knew that he didn't think of you as 'that kind of girl' and to somehow make sure you understood that he loved you for you, and not the sex you were suddenly offering. You have no idea how worried he was about hurting you or having you think that you had to throw yourself at him to get his attention."

"So, that night in my room, that was really you saying those things? You really came just to tell me that you loved me? That the sex stuff was nice but that you didn't want us to be about that?"

I just nodded and said, "Yes, that was really me. Only that was the first time I ever did it on purpose, I was so scared I was going to screw it up. That I was going to say the wrong thing and make it worse. And then, I stayed away. You have no idea how hard it was to be with you that first weekend. To not let on that I knew about any of that and just try to let us 'grow' naturally. I mean, Allison had told me that you'd had a crush on me, but that was a reality thing, something any sister may have told; but the other stuff? Well, I didn't want to take advantage of anything that I learned in a dream. I wanted it to come naturally. Does that make any sense?"

She squeezed my hand and answered, "Yes. I understand what you are saying. You didn't want to feel you had cheated?"

"Yeah, I guess that's it."

"Is that how you found out about Allison and me?"

Allison cracked up at this. "Not like you think but yes. I told you he figured it out on his own? Since this whole thing started he has gotten really good at figuring things out. Anyway, after the dream with you, I took him to the stream, you remember me telling you about all that right?"

Shannon blushed bright red. "Oh yeah! I remember that."

"Anyway, one thing he discovered was that in both of the dreams, our boobies had no flavor; he could feel them but not taste anything at all. Well he figured out that the dreams had no basis in any of our lives for reality to impact the dream. Then, when he kissed me here in reality for the first time he noticed something was different but he couldn't figure out what. That weekend, when he kissed you the first time something clicked and he realized that I tasted like the dream you, and you tasted like the dream me. He put two and two together and figured out that since he had not kissed a girl like that then the 'taste' of our kisses in the dreams was actually what each of us experienced kissing each other. Your brain associated the taste from the only source it had to work with and overlaid that on the dream, and the same with me. And since the taste was so identical a match he also figured out that the only one either of us had kissed like that was each other. Get it?"

"Too weird," she said and shook her head. "Is everything this complicated?"

"No, not really," I said. "It's only new experiences that get weird. It's like somehow the collective subconscious of everyone 'in, ' and I mean really 'in' a particular dream, combine to establish the 'reality' of the dream. That's why your kisses had a 'taste' but your oh so lovely breasts did not. I certainly didn't have anything to base it on, and since you two hadn't gone that far yet, neither did you."

"Oh, I get it. Is there more?"

"Oh there is a lot more," Allison said, "but I think that is enough for now. A lot of it will have to wait. Maybe we should wait and let this all settle in and see if you have any questions then we'll move on. Do you have questions?"

I could see her thinking about it. "I'm not sure. I probably should have but I'm not really sure where to start. So maybe we should wait for a while. So why is all of this, such a secret? I would think it would be really big news."

Allison got really serious. "That is exactly why we can't tell anyone about it. Shannon. If it was anyone else besides Jimmy, would you be comfortable with the idea that they could just walk around in your dreams?"

Suddenly it dawned on her. "No. Well, you."

"Right, someone you love and you know loves you is one thing. What about Mark?"

"Eww! Like NO!"

"And if people found out Jimmy could do this? Or if maybe the government found out."

She went white. "Oh my God! Jimmy!"

"Exactly!"

"But you said there are others."

"There are three others. One is legally bound not to discuss it. The other two are part of what we will discuss later but there is no danger that either will be telling anyone about it. Is there anything else?"

"Well, not really any questions. Not right now anyway, just a statement."

"What's that?" I said.

She slid down to kneel between us. Once she was settled she took Allison's face between her hands and kissed her gently. "I love you." She then turned to me and took my face between her hands. She looked me in the eye, "I don't know if 'I love you' even begins to cover how I feel about you. The more I get to know you. The more I learn about just how wonderful you are. I can't say that I love you more than I do Allison, but there is just so much..." She kissed me and then pulled both of us into her arms. "Thank you. Thank you both for everything, for loving me and for trusting me. I understand now why you held this back. And knowing how much you love me, I understand how hard it must have been."

"We love you too, sweetie," Allison said. "And we feel the same way. You really can't compare my feelings for you to my feelings for Jimmy, and I know the same is true for how he feels about us. And it has been hard. And there is so much more that we haven't told you yet. But that will come soon, I promise. Meanwhile, how about if we just change the subject. Maybe watch a movie and decompress for a while. All this tension is starting to give me a headache."

We put in "Sleepless in Seattle" and settled back of a few hours of mindless entertainment. I took a few minutes to massage Allison's back and neck. That dealt with the tension headache that had been creeping up on her. Then I gave Shannon the same treatment. She hadn't realized it but the same thing had been happening to her. Then I sat on the floor in front of the couch and they each took a side and did the same for me. It was only about 10:00 when the movie ended but we all decided to call it a night anyway. It was nice falling asleep between them.

Once asleep, Allison and I immediately met in the glade. We had all gone to bed naked but she had showed up in my favorite outfit, the butterfly g-string and peak-a-boo robe. I was in a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt.

"Well, how do you think it went?" I asked.

"Jimmy, that is about a stupid question. What you mean is do I think she's ready for the rest? And the answer is yes. We said we would tell her everything. Do you really think you can bring her here?"

"Only one way to find out, I'm going to bring her sort of like I did Amy the first time, asleep. Do you want to change?"

She slid her arms around my waist and pressed herself against me. "Do you want me to change?"

I slid a hand under her robe to caress her breast and kissed her lightly, "Never. You are perfect just the way you are."

"I love you too," she said. "Can I wake her up?"

"Sure, assuming I can get her here." We sat down on the blanket and I concentrated on Shannon. I pictured her asleep in my mind but other than that added nothing else. Suddenly she was there, curled up asleep. She was wearing one of the long shirts she normally slept in.

"Cool!" Allison said.

"Okay, I guess that answers that question. We can experiment with the other stuff later. Do I need to leave for a while so you can 'wake her up'?"

"No, silly. Besides if you left she would go too. Remember what happened with Amy? She couldn't stay at the beach without you and she can move on her own."

"Oh yeah, then go ahead I guess."

Allison bent over her girlfriends sleeping form and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Shannon?" she whispered and stroked her hair tenderly.

Shannon's eyes fluttered and she looked up at Allison. "Mmm. Good morning. Wow, it feels like I just..." She stopped suddenly as she realized that it was daylight and she was not in a bed. She sat up and looked around wonderingly. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed, suddenly excited. "Am I where I a think I am? Allison? Is this your glade? It is your glade. I recognize it from your description. Wow! Love your outfit! Is Jimmy..."

"Yes," I answered from behind her.

She turned and saw me and I could see the wonder in her eyes. "It's really all true. I mean, I believed you, but it all seemed so..."

"We know," Allison said. "You can tell yourself you believe, but until you actually experience it you really can't." She reached to help Shannon to her feet. "Welcome to our world. Well, more Jimmy's world really, this is just my little corner. How do you like it?"

"It's beautiful. It's everything you described. Are there really horses here?"

"I guess they are around somewhere. Honestly I haven't thought about them in ages. Do you really like my outfit?"

Shannon stroked her hand down the outside of the robe, "I love it! Where did you get it?"

"Just something I dreamed up? Would you like one?"

"Can I?"

"Sure." I could see her concentrate but nothing happened. "That's weird." She looked at me for a second. She turned back to Shannon, and I could see the concentration on her face, but still nothing happened.

"That's interesting. Jimmy? Would you please?"

"My pleasure." Suddenly Shannon was wearing an outfit identical to Allison's but in pink instead of white.

Shannon took in the change, stroking the material and twirling around once. She ran her hand down past her breasts and down to her little butterfly briefs. "Ooh. This feels so good. It makes me all tingly just having it on."

"Then you can imagine what it does to me just seeing you in it," I said.

"Me too," said Allison. "Now change her back." Shannon's face fell. Allison rolled her eyes. "Just for a second, girl, chill, trust me, this is research. Jimmy? If you please."

"Do I have to?" I whined. "You know how much I love that outfit."

"Jimmy..." she warned.

"Okay, just asking." I returned Shannon to her sleep shirt and Allison turned to her.

"Okay. Now, Shannon, You do it."

"Do what?"

"Change your clothes."

"But I don't have anything to change to."

"No, no," Allison said. "I don't mean take that off and put something else on, I mean change your clothes back to what you just had on."

"I can't do that," Shannon said.

"Yes you can. You just don't know it. Look at mine. Yours was just like it only in pink instead. Now picture yourself in that outfit and concentrate."

You could see she was trying but nothing was happening.

"Hmmm. You're trying hard?" Allison asked.

"I think so. Am I doing it wrong?"

"I don't think so. Let's try something else. Jimmy. Take us to the island."

The scene blurred and suddenly we were all standing on the beach next to the little table. The scene was exactly as it had been with Amy and Rebecca except now a boardwalk led out to a covered hut over the water in the middle of the lagoon. It was high enough that the waves just rolled gently under it.

The girls looked around, Allison with interest, Shannon with wonder.

"Wow!" Shannon said. "That was awesome. And this is beautiful. Where are we?"

"Just an island in the middle of nowhere, I based it on the one from Jurassic Park, but without all the dangerous stuff. So what's up, Allison? Why did you want to come here?"

"Research. Give me a minute." She looked hard at Shannon for a second and I knew she was once more trying to change her outfit. Still, nothing happened.

"Okay, Shannon. Try to change your clothes again. It doesn't matter to what; it can be what I have on or just to your bathing suit."

"Okay." Almost instantly she was in her bathing suit. She gasped as she felt the change on her skin. She looked down at herself then tentatively ran her hand over the top to confirm what she was seeing. "Did I really do that?"

"Yep, you really did," Allison said. "Very interesting, I can't affect Shannon, even in my own dream... She can't affect herself in my dream either. But now that we have shifted to a "Jimmy" dream, she can. Not surprising when you think about it, but useful to know. Do you guys want to stay here or go back to the glade?"

Shannon changed her outfit to the pink version of Allison's. "Can we stay here?" she said. "This is fun."

"Of course we can," Allison said. "But why don't we move to the cabana. We have a lot to talk about. Jimmy, did you, uhm."

I chuckled. "Yes." I knew what she was asking, 'Did I change the sheets?' I took a pretty girl in each hand and headed off across the beach. Shannon noticed all the footprints.

"You guys must come here a lot."

Now it was Allison's turn to chuckle. "Actually, it's only my second time but we'll explain that with the rest when we get inside."

I opened the door to the cabana and passed the girls inside. It was a really nice room. The view out over the ocean was beautiful, and there were transparent panels scattered around the floor so you could see down into the water. There was even a sunken seating area that allowed you to sit and dangle your feet in the water. I led them over to it and we sat down. The girls changed to bathing suits so their robes wouldn't get wet. I pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and poured us each a glass.

"This is going to take a while so get comfortable. What we are going to bring up we only talk about here because there is no chance of anyone overhearing any of it. It's complicated and it's not all pretty, so be prepared. We said there were three others who know about all of this. One we've already told you about but I'm not going to give you the name. It's not that I don't trust you but the confidence thing works both ways to some extent. Until I talk to him about all of this I won't disclose who he is. That will be up to him to decide. The other two are both easier and more complicated. The first is a woman, Special Agent Rebecca Hampton of the FBI."

"The FBI! I thought you said you were worried about the government finding out?"

"We are. She is necessary. And she has to know because we are working on a case together."

"You're working on a case with the FBI?!"

"Yes, that's the not pretty part. I'll get to that in a minute. The other person is Rebecca's little sister, Amy. She is the one who 'introduced' me to Rebecca." Over the course of the next, well it felt like hours, but its dreamtime so it really doesn't matter, anyway, we brought Shannon up to date on what was going on.

As you can imagine, she was stunned.

"This is just too weird. Okay, the ghost of an eight year old girl, who's been in a coma for 12 years set you up to help her sister catch a guy who killed a girl three years ago."

"She's not a ghost. But she is frozen at the age she was hurt at. Even I can't change much about her. But yes, that's the short version."

"And you're okay with all this?" she asked.

"No I'm not okay with it. It scares the crap out me. I'm a fifteen-year-old kid and I watched this maniac rape, torture, and kill an innocent girl. And I felt him do it. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. But I can't turn my back on it and just walk away. According to Amy, and she is the strangest part of the whole thing, I'm the only one that can stop him. And I need her sister to do it. I can't let him do this again."

"How do you know he hasn't already?"

I stared at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Amy didn't know anything about the crimes. Except that she seemed to know that there was more than one. You are assuming that he is going to do it again. What if he already did? Amy didn't show you anything until you asked. Maybe she didn't know anything. Amy may be like a computer. The information is there, but until you ask the right questions..."