Chapter 36: Explanations

Cuddled up with the girls, I was reminded of one of the major drawbacks to my gift: twenty-four hour days. We were all worn out, but where the girls got to arrange themselves for sleep, I still had some serious explaining to do. The first step was to bubble Rebecca so that it would still be safe when we were through. This posed a unique problem since I wanted to be honest with Rebecca, and for her to understand what had happened. The problem was that neither of us wanted her to remember the details of how it was done. She was uncomfortable with the knowledge she already had of my abilities, and this...

After discussing the situation with Bob he suggested that – by using a bubble – we may be able to let Rebecca pick and choose what she got out of it; from complete details, to just a feeling that she understood what had happened but didn't need to know the whole truth.

I left Lizzy and Amber cuddled together someplace quiet and took Allison with me to meet with her and Bob. I switched the furniture in the cabana to something more business oriented, losing the bed and covering the sunken area where we usually sat and hung our feet in the water.

"A lot has changed in the last six or eight months, Rebecca," I said.

"I'd say so," she agreed. "It seems pretty obvious that your gifts are no longer limited to dreams."

"Yes and no," I said. "Most of what I do is still dream related, or at least it seems to be. It's just that the dream environment itself has changed, and I seem to be changing with it, or it may actually be the other way around: I may be changing, and the dreamscape changing with me. In either case, the spaces that we've all been using these past months are not the same as they were when we started. Have you noticed that you and Bob can pretty much come to the beach anytime you want?"

"Sure, but that's what those keys you gave us are for, isn't it?"

"Yes and no," Allison said. "The keys gave you access to each others' dreams; they should not have given you access to this space. Remember how you used to have to ask, and then Jimmy would send you here? Somewhere along the line you stopped needing to ask."

"Then how are we getting here?" Rebecca asked.

"We're not really sure," I said. "At first we suspected that since I would allow it if I were here, that somehow – unconsciously or subconsciously – I was letting you come here. Allison now believes that theory to be wrong – or at least only be a partial explanation. Rebecca, somehow this space has become self-sustaining."

"I don't understand what you mean by that," She said.

"We're not really sure either," Bob said. "What we do know is that anyone who is close enough to Jimmy to have been here in the past, can now come here anytime they want, even if he is awake."

"Wait a minute," she said, shaking her head. "I thought this place was just a dream. Granted, it's been a while since I was in school, but doesn't that make this a sort of subconscious projection that he created? I know it's probably not the right way to explain it, but haven't we, for all intents and purposes, been playing around in a little corner of his imagination somewhere all this time?"

"No, you've got the basics right," Bob assured her. "As to where we really 'are', I have no idea, but I cannot discount your assumption either. Up until the change, I would have agreed with you that that's where we were actually going; either that, or in a tiny corner of each other's minds – depending on the chosen venue for the evening. Now?" He shook his head. "I have no idea. That could still be the case, because the subconscious still operates even when you're awake, but there have been other changes that that theory doesn't account for."

"What kind of changes?"

"You know Walter?" Bob asked.

"I thought I knew about Walter?" she answered, turning to me. "You told me he was a sort of ... wolf-thing you'd met in a little boy's nightmare, and that you'd taken him over to stop the nightmares and help the boy deal with his stuttering. When Angela disappeared, you tried to have him help you find her, but that didn't work out. No one ever told me he was actually a man until after Amy woke up and thought she could see him. When I tried to explain to her that he wasn't real, she wouldn't hear of it and told me I was wrong. I let it go based on the fact that I was arguing with an eight year old, and she wasn't capable of understanding. I thought he was just sort of an imaginary friend, but after tonight ... That was him dancing with her tonight, wasn't it?"

"Yes and no," I said. "Rebecca, we don't understand half of what is happening; we're working on it, but all we know for sure is that there is a lot more going on here than we ever – for lack of a better term – dreamed of. You know about what Lizzy sees when she looks at people?"

"I wouldn't say I know – I certainly don't understand it – but she explained that she doesn't see people the way we do."

"Right," I said. "Allison has a theory that what she sees is a sort of energy pattern that we each generate. She got the idea from something a Russian scientist discovered years ago. He theorized that all living creatures generated this sort of 'field', and that each one was unique. I think it had something to do with the electro-chemical energy driving our nervous systems, but I never really got into it. He even came up with a way to photograph it. I don't think any of his work ever got past the novelty stage, really, but the photographs – though crude – supported his theory."

"Oh, it's more than a theory," Bob said, interrupting. "There is a lot more to what they call 'The Kirlian Effect' than just photography. The research actually began all the way back in the late 1930s, but it didn't really start going places until the early seventies, when the Russians released information about it. Since then – while sporadic – there has still been a lot of research done around the world. Romania spends over a million dollars a year on it. That may not sound like much, but you have to remember; Romania's entire economy doesn't equal that of half the states in the US. I also remember reading somewhere that there is a hospital in New York that has been using it to research different holistic medical ideas, including acupuncture and even 'laying on of hands' – which goes all the way back to biblical times. Again, for comparison, that single hospital spends more on research every year than the entire country of Romania.

"Like you, Rebecca, it's been a long time since I was in school – longer even – but even then it was amazing the way the images of just fingertips changed based on the emotional and physical state of the subject. Some of the studies done involving couples were even more startling. Unfortunately, where some see an enormous potential in diagnostics and treatment, others see New Age mysticism: the kind of fringe lunatics that use it to bolster their religious beliefs, claiming that it proves that trees and animals have souls, and driving serious people – and research money – away. I would love to be able to compare what Lizzy sees when she looks at someone to what appears in the photographs, but I don't know how you could possibly do that."

"Easy," Rebecca said. "Show her the subject, and then show her the picture. She sees things like photographs, movies, and television just fine. It's only in person that she can't see people. But we're getting off subject. What does all this have to do with my sister dancing with a character Jimmy pulled out of some kid's nightmare?"

"Nothing, really," I said, shaking my head. "I was just trying to explain where Allison got the theory she's been using to try and answer some of these questions. As usual, though, we're coming up with more questions than answers, so we really don't have much in the way of explanations, but it's clear that something is going on because more and more things keep happening."

"What kind of things?" Rebecca asked.

"Well," Allison said, "like Bob said, you know about Walter, but what you don't know is that Jimmy can see Walter during the day as well, and that Walter can move around just about anywhere in our physical world. Not only move around in it, but perceive it and communicate those perceptions to Jimmy – all while Jimmy is wide awake."

All Rebecca could do was sit and stare.

"It gets even weirder," Allison assured her. "Not too long ago we got another surprise. Jimmy? Could you call Widget?"

"I can try," I said. "Just remember she's a cat, so..."

That got Rebecca's attention, and she shook herself out of the daze she seemed to be in. "Did you say cat?"

"Yes," Allison said, "Christine's cat, to be exact. Shortly after Christine moved in, her cat followed them into dreamspace. Actually, she followed Christine, but that doesn't matter for this discussion. What matters is that when she first appeared there, they didn't recognize her."

As she was speaking, Widget came walking out from behind the couch and started rubbing against my leg. I reached down and scratched her head, and she started purring.

"Lizzy only sees real people in dreams," Allison continued. "If you and I are in a dream with her, she'll see both of us, but if she's in my dream and I'm dreaming of you, she will see your face like she will a picture – if she sees you at all. It's weird, trust me, and I'm only mentioning it so you'll understand the significance when I say that as soon as Widget showed up, only Lizzy recognized her."

"Why didn't the rest of you recognize her?" Rebecca asked.

"Because she was scared," I said. "The images we project of ourselves here are merely how we see ourselves at any given time. You remember when my family was kidnapped? When I called you, you showed up in an evening gown because you and Bob were off somewhere, but as soon as I told you what had happened, you switched," I snapped my fingers, "to work clothes. It wasn't a conscious choice; you just went from 'Rebecca Hampton, out for the evening', to 'Special Agent Rebecca Hampton, on the job'. Widget had just gone from being curled up in the bedroom of my apartment to finding herself in a strange jungle. Understandably, she was scared and angry; who wouldn't be? Well, you know how kittens get when they're playing? How they seem to think they're much bigger and badder than they really are?"

There was a growl from around my ankles, and, when we looked down, Widget was in full-blown badass kitty mode. Allison quickly knelt and scratched her head.

"He's just trying to make a point, Widget. We know you really are all that."

Widget rolled onto her back, grabbing Allison's hand and licking it, and suddenly she was normal sized again.

"That is too weird," Rebecca said.

"Oh, yeah!" Allison agreed. "So anyway, they didn't recognize her, but Lizzy did, because she had ridden out from Georgia with Christine and spent three days in the car with her, so she immediately recognized Widget by her pattern. The problem was, according to Lizzy, her pattern had changed. It was now stronger and more complex than it had been in the car. What happened to change it is a longer and weirder story all by itself, but what matters now is that suddenly we have a cat that not only dreams, but who can follow Jimmy or Christine into this..." she waved her hand around indicating the room, " ... environment. We don't know if they are the only ones she can follow, but we know she can follow them because, just like now when she showed up here, she can follow Christine from one dream environment to another. I don't think she can go anywhere on her own, but we've been too busy with other things to do much in the way of experimenting."

"Do I want to ask?" Rebecca asked.

"I don't know," Allison answered seriously. "Do you want to know the answer?"

"I'll decide later. So how does all this tie in with Amy being able to see Walter, and him showing up to dance with her?"

"That's a little more complicated," I said. "When you asked if that was him, I said, 'yes and no'. The yes was that yes, he was there, and it looked like him. The no, was that he was there, but it was me looking like him."

"What?" Rebecca asked, shaking her head.

"Right," I said. "That's exactly how I felt the first time it happened. Just wait.

"Walter!" I called, and moments later the door opened, and he strode in, dressed once more in his usual leather outfit. As soon as he stepped in, Widget jumped up and ran to him, leaping up with every apparent expectation that Walter would catch her, which, of course, he did.

"Ho, Little Warrior, well met," he said, holding her up so she could rub her head on his chin and neck and scratching her with his free hand. You could hear her purr from ten feet away.

"You summoned me, My Lord?" Walter said, striding forward.

"Walter, I would like you to meet Amy's sister, Rebecca."

Walter immediately dropped to a knee at Rebecca's feet, setting Widget on the floor as he took her hand and kissed it. "Milady, it is an honor to meet you at last."

"Get up Walter," Allison said. "You're embarrassing her. You two can get acquainted later; right now we're working. Would you merge with Jimmy please?"

"Certainly," he said, rising.

I rose at the same time and held out my hand to stop him.

"Not yet," I said. "Now, Rebecca, before we do this, you need to understand that, if I want to, I can look like Walter, here, any time." As I said it, I changed to mirror his appearance. "It is a dream, after all, but..." I switched back to my normal appearance, " ... what we're about to show you is different. Go ahead Walter."

The big man stepped forward and vanished into me. "Don't ask me to explain how this works because I don't have a clue, but if Lizzy were here right now, she would be able to tell that Walter is inside me. And not just that he's inside of me, but that his pattern has actually merged with mine. God, there is so much more to explain in all this. Okay, the weirdest part of any of this is that I can now move physically into this space, or someplace that I perceive as being this space, and out again."

"What?" she demanded, and I could see she was about to launch into another question when Bob put his hand on hers and stopped her.

"Thanks, Bob," I said. "I can't explain it, Rebecca, because I don't understand how it's possible, either. All I know is that I can, and – and this is the part that answers your question – when I leave, I take the appearance I'm in with me. What happened earlier tonight was that I went somewhere where I could be alone, crossed over to this space – wherever it is – merged with Walter, and stepped back into our reality as the man you saw. Walter does not have a physical body, not in our reality. But he can merge with me and share mine. So what you saw tonight was me – dressed, if you will – as Walter, dancing with Amy. As you've seen here, Walter's body is considerably bigger and stronger than mine, and that was what gave me the idea to do it. We were all concerned about Amy hurting herself if she tried too hard or fell. But if her partner were strong enough to support her, that wouldn't be an issue. I had her dress made with that special harness sewn into it so that, using Walter's size, I would have the strength and leverage to keep her from falling and hurting herself if her strength gave out. And before you say it, yes, you're right; all of this is impossible. You know it, I know it, Bob knows it; everyone knows it. That's why we're having such a hard time dealing with it and figuring it out. It's impossible, but, somehow, it's happening. Allison's theory is that there is something radically different about my energy field and that that's what first allowed me to wander around in people's dreams, and which, as I've grown up and started using it, has now grown and changed to the point that it is impacting our physical reality."