Chapter 2

Tara lived with her parents and her five-year-old sister Hannah. Tara at the age of nine had adored having a new baby come into the house, and had enjoyed playing with her as she grew up. Since she was so much older, she related to her a bit more like a mother than a sister. But the little girl adored her and was on the whole a pretty good kid. She had her moments, of course. But on the whole Tara felt she was lucky when she heard her peers talk about their siblings.

Hannah had a best friend Kate who lived on the other side of town. They played at each other's houses pretty often. It seemed most weekends either Kate was over at their house or the other way around for hours at a time. Kate often stayed to dinner, and now and then they'd had a sleepover too. Kate was kind of bossy, but Hannah didn't seem to mind. Kate had an active imagination, and Tara sometimes found herself smiling as she sat in her room, unable to help overhearing the animated make-believe going on in the living room.

One day the conversation took a different and surprising turn.

"I had a funny dream," Hannah said.

"You're supposed to be the evil witch, Hannah."

"I had a dream about your daddy."

"You can use this for a wand, OK? And you're going to turn me into a frog. I'm the prince now."

"It was about his, you know, thingie."

"His what?"

"You know, his..." and Hannah whispered something Tara didn't catch and giggled.

"I saw it once," confided Kate. "When he was in the shower."

Hannah then proceeded to relate a story of her dream of a very explicit sexual encounter, with occasional interruptions and expressions of disbelief from Kate.

"You're making that up."

"No! I dreamed it!"

"That's gross."

"It was kind of fun in the dream."

"Hannah! You're supposed to be the witch!"

There was a brief pause. "I was the witch last time!"

"Yeah, but you make a good witch. I have to be the prince. You take this wand, see, and say..."

Tara thought it was funny that Hannah was having dreams about sex. She was so little! She wondered idly how she knew so much.

The next weekend Hannah came into Tara's room; she had left the door open a crack.

"Hi, Henny," she said, using the old nickname. "What's up?"

"I'm sad."

"Why sad?"

"I can't go over to Kate's any more."

"Why not?"

"Mommy won't say, but I think it's about a dream I had."

"Oh? What did you dream?"

"Mommy says I'm not supposed to tell."

"You can tell me."

"Nope, she said not to."

Tara made a connection in her mind. "Is it the one about Kate's dad and his thingie?"

Hannah's eyes went wide. "How'd you know about that?"

"I heard you telling Kate about it last weekend. That's the dream, right?"

"Um, yeah, how'd you know?"

"It just made sense somehow."

"Why can't I go to Kate's house because of a dream?"

Tara didn't have a good answer to that, but it got her thinking. She approached her mother as she was doing dishes, explaining how she knew about the secret dream.

"So why can't she go to Kate's house?"

"You shouldn't worry about anything like that, Tara. We'll work it out."

"Yeah, but Hannah loves Kate. Why can't she see her?"

"I said, it's not something you need to worry about."

"Ah, c'mon, mom, I'm not a little kid!"

"All right," her mother sighed. She stopped doing dishes and sat at the kitchen table. "Why do you think Hannah would have a dream like that?"

"I don't know. She dreamed about sex, that's all."

"Yeah, I guess you do know about sex, don't you," said her mother, looking away momentarily. "But how does Hannah know about sex?"

"Oh, hmmmm. She overheard people talking."

"Who'd talk about sex in front of Hannah?" She paused as if she'd just thought of something. "You wouldn't, would you?"

"Of course not!"

"I didn't think so, honey, but I figured I ought to ask. So who would?"

"I dunno. Did she see a video or something?"

"Who'd let Hannah see a video about sex?"

"I dunno; maybe they found one somewhere?"

"There's another possibility, right?"

The revelation hit Tara in the pit of the stomach. "You mean, like Kate's daddy really did that to her?"

"Or at least pretended to. We're pretty sure he didn't actually, you know, really do everything she dreamed, because everything looks fine down there."

"But Hannah doesn't seem upset by the dream."

"Yeah, but it's not just a dream, see? Probably he told her not to tell, and she figured if it was a dream, that wouldn't be telling."

"But she's not upset."

"Kids often aren't upset by abuse right away -- or they don't show it."

"So what are you going to do?"

"We're making sure Hannah isn't anywhere near Kate's dad while we figure out what to do."

Tara had to admit that sounded reasonable.

They didn't have long to wait. On Tuesday, neither of Hannah's parents went to work, instead taking Hannah to "meetings" all day. Hannah seemed glum when she got home, well after Tara was home from school.

"What's going on? Why so sad?" Tara asked her little sister as she came into the bedroom and plopped herself in her lap for a hug.

Right on her heels came their mother, however, who said, "Come on, Hannah, come out with me."

"Why?"

"Just so."

As Tara suspected, her mother wanted to have the first go at telling what happened. She came in later, after Hannah was asleep, and sat down.

"It's about the dream, right?"

"Yeah, Hannah mentioned the dream at school, and the teacher overheard. And as a 'mandated reporter', she had to, well, report it. Which means they have to investigate. So they asked us questions all day, and then each of us alone, including Hannah. Daddy's pretty upset because they're obviously suspecting him too."

"Why daddy?"

"Because one thing she might do if he was abusing her is say that someone else was doing it instead."

"Daddy'd never do that!"

"I know, I know, but they've got to check it out. Procedures and all. It was touch and go whether they'd make him move out while they investigate. I suggested maybe he could stay if they swapped rooms, and the police said OK. Hannah's sleeping in with me until they sort this out. I have to check in on her every ten minutes," she sighed, checking her watch. "And you're excused from school tomorrow so they can ask you questions too."

It took two hours. They asked about any mood changes she'd seen in Hannah or Kate, whether Kate's father had ever touched her or looked at her funny. They asked her about her own father, and just what he'd done with her, how he'd touched her, what parts of him she'd seen, how he looked at her, over and over again. She had nothing important to say, but she realized a hug from daddy would never be the same again. She felt dirty and depressed by the whole thing.

She imagined how Hannah must feel, because they must have asked her those questions and more, and undoubtedly she'd had to recount her dream -- all of it over and over again. And Kate -- surely Kate had had to analyze every hug her daddy had ever given her, every bath he'd helped her with. She learned that Kate, too, had to sleep in the room with her mother while they continued the investigation.

That night they let Hannah visit Tara, and the little girl cried in her arms.

"Oh, it's OK, Hannah, it will all work out. Don't cry."

When her sniffles had died down, Hannah said, "I keep having the dream. First in my dream I just let him do what he wanted. And I didn't mind, though they think I really did somehow."

"It's just a dream, right?"

"Yeah, but they don't believe me. They think it really happened. Then after the social workers started asking me all those questions I knew I shouldn't let him, so when he came into my dream I didn't let him do it any more. I pushed him away. He left, but then I kept having the dream over and over, all night."

"What?" asked Tara, suddenly making a connection.

"I kept having the dream over and over."

"When you were letting him do what he wanted, you only had the dream once, but when you stopped letting him, the dream kept coming back?"

"Yeah. That's right! You get it!" said the little girl. "They don't believe me, and always ask questions to make everything different than it is."

"I'm sorry, honey," Tara said, rocking her sister.

"Do you believe it was a dream?"

"Yes, Hannah, yes I do!" said Tara with total sincerity, staring into her little sister's eyes, tears welling up.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said the little girl, dissolving into tears once more.

Now Tara had a lot to think about. Hannah was having dreams just like she and Melanie were -- not to mention Leslie, Cyrus, Walter, and presumably Mr. White. No one was actually doing anything to Hannah; there was nothing wrong!

But there was the other part of it. Why would Kate's father dream about doing something like that with Hannah? She was just a little kid! It was a disgusting thought, him dreaming about doing to her sister what Cyrus did to her -- and more disgusting than doing it was why he'd want to do it. He'd always seemed nice. He had a friendly twinkle in his eyes whenever he looked at her or Hannah, she realized. But lots of grown-ups looked at kids like that.

And how on earth would the act itself work? But then she realized that she dreamed of Cyrus's penis all the time, but she was still a virgin in real life. In the dream world, sizes didn't have to match up.

What kind of a man was Kate's father? He dreamed in a sexy way about her little sister, who was way too young to look at all like a woman -- and the thought made a surge of rage flush through her body. But he wasn't actually doing anything to her -- was he? If Hannah said he wasn't, then Tara believed her. Cyrus wasn't doing anything to her or Melanie, either.

Melanie sat with wide eyes as Tara told the story of all that had happened, and she remained silent for a while after Tara was done.

"Holy shit," said the goddess at last.

"What? What do we do?"

"We knew part of it, right? A few guys reach out in their dreams to try to do it with the girls they have the hots for."

"Why do you say 'a few'?"

"There are a lot of guys besides Walter, Cyrus, and Mr. White who have the hots for me."

"Oh."

"I mean, it's true, right?"

Anyone could see that a lot of guys salivated over Melanie's body.

"Not that I'm bragging -- but thank God they don't all visit me every night! 'Take a number, boys'?" she called out in the voice of a disgruntled bureaucrat. It was worth a laugh. She continued, "And the girls feel it, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, um -- what's the man's name?"

"Mr. Anderson."

"So Mr. Anderson has the hots for Hannah. He's probably just as nice as Cyrus is, and has these dreams and can't help it."

"But he shouldn't dream about Hannah that way. That's gross!"

"Yeah, it is," said Melanie, lapsing into silence. "But it's gross for Walter to paw my boobs too."

"He does -- still?"

"No, I kind of stick my butt up at him in my dream, and he's in and out in no time. But before I let him he was doing that -- and more."

"But it's different, right? I mean, it's normal for Walter to want to do it with girls."

"Yeah, you're right," said Melanie. "Just like it's normal for Vanessa to want a boyfriend."

They both giggled. Vanessa was really fat, loud, not very smart, and all the things a girl didn't want to be.

So it came back to the sickening question. "Why would Mr. Anderson want to be that way with Hannah? Yuck!"

Melanie shrugged. "I dunno. But let's think about it more. What do we want?"

"I want them to stop bugging Hannah and telling her it couldn't have just been a dream."

"Yeah, that's important." She paused a moment. "And then what about the dream?"

"She didn't mind the dream before the teachers found out. When I heard her telling Kate about it, it was just a cool thing that had happened."

"So do you want her to keep on having it?"

"No ... No! Of course not! So how do we keep Mr. Anderson from having his dreams?"

"I dunno." After a little more thought, she added, "OK, then how do we get them to stop bugging Hannah about the dream?"

"We could tell them we have dreams like that too."

"You think they'd believe us?"

"Believe what? That we're dreaming about guys doing it to us? They know we've got hormones. They'd believe that part."

"Yeah, I guess. But, shit! I don't want to tell a bunch of cops about Cyrus and Walter and Mr. White!"

"And the vibrator?" Tara gave a wicked little grin.

"Well, I could leave that part out, I think," said Melanie with a little smile. "But it isn't the dreams themselves, right? It's that the dreams are coming from the boys. That there's this connection between their dreams and our dreams."

"Yeah, and maybe the boys could stop having their dreams? So Mr. Anderson could too?"

"Yeah."

There was a really long pause.

"I think we need to talk with Cyrus," said Tara.

"Cyrus!" said Melanie with some alarm.

"Well, you don't want to talk with Walter, do you? Or Mr. White?"

"Yeah, well that's for sure, but ... what can Cyrus tell us?"

"What it's like for him to have those dreams. Maybe he knows what makes him have more or less of them. Who knows how many other girls he's visiting every night?"

"Yeah, but don't you think he'd die of embarrassment?"

"I'm not sure, but -- hey, he's the one who showed up in our dreams!"

"Yeah, but maybe he can't help it."

"Even so. My sister's very upset, and her life's a mess right now. I don't care if Cyrus gets embarrassed!"

"I don't know. I still don't think it's a good idea."

Tara wasn't surprised that Cyrus was reluctant, but why her friend Melanie was so unenthusiastic was beyond her. She corralled the two of them after school the next day in the physics classroom -- a location Cyrus had suggested.

"So. What do you want?" asked Cyrus, looking away after making brief eye contact.

"I want to tell you about my sister. She's five years old, OK? And one day I overheard her telling her friend Kate that she'd had a dream. You can't tell anyone, Cyrus, OK?"

"Why not?" he said, a little belligerently.

"Because it's a secret. You'll understand when you hear it. You promise?"

"OK," said the boy with a sullen sigh.

"Kate's her best friend, and they're visiting back and forth all the time. Her dream was that Kate's father had molested her. Like did everything. Went all the way with her. And she's only five years old!"

Cyrus continued to look away, uncomfortable.

"The teachers found out about this dream, and now it's a huge deal. See, they figure that she couldn't have a dream like that, because she wouldn't know what sex was all about. The only way she could know that is if someone was actually doing bad things to her."

"Makes sense," said Cyrus.

"But she insists it's only a dream. And I swear the first time I heard her say it she wasn't upset about it. She was just talking about something cool. But then she told me more. She said that the first time Mr. Anderson came to her in her dreams, he wanted to, you know, get at her private parts, and she just let him. She says in her dream he did it to her, and then disappeared. And that kept happening every night."

"So? Maybe Mr. Anderson kept doing it to her in real life."

"They're not in the same place that often -- and wait, there's more. Once the teachers found out and everyone made a big deal of it, Hannah decided he was being bad and she shouldn't let him. When he came to her in her dream, she pushed him away and wouldn't let him do it any more."