
10
Honey looked around, unkowning how she had gotten herself in a place like that. She was sitting on a field, all the green grass around shiny with the sun, and around her, she came to realize, there were bubbles slowly forming, and floating like balloons. Soon the whole field was covered by bubbles.
Laughing, she started running through the bubbles, but noticing, atonished, that she could actually enter inside them. Every time she’d get out of some, the bubble would make a strange sucking noise. And every time she ran inside and out of all of them, she saw different things. Dreams.
Then suddenly, as she entered one of the bubbles, she felt a sharped pain on her head. She heard cries. High, shrieking cries, as if someone was in pain. Her cries. And all around her, she saw blood. Everything around her was becoming sticky red, and she couldn’t get out. She was trapped inside that bubble. She heard a last cry, much more scary than all of the others. She realized she was screaming, but no one would hear her. She would never set herself free.
“Daddy!!!”
“Honey”.
Max suddenly woke up, his eyes wide open in fear and worry.
“Max?”, he heard Liz’s soft, sleepy voice. “What’s the matter, Max?”
“Honey”, Max breathed. “It’s Honey”.
“What’s the matter with her?”, Liz asked, the concern starting taking over her voice.
“She had a dream. A nightmare. I saw it. I could sense everything that she was feeling”.
“Oh my God”, Liz whispered. “What could that be?”
“Those dreams are warnings. I saw it. I can feel it. She’s becoming a dreamwalker, Liz”.
~* ~* ~*
Honey woke up, her hair and face sticky with sweat, the warm tears rolling down her face. She looked around in panick, expecting to still see herself trapped inside the bubble, surrounded by blood. She pushed away the sheets and the blanket and wiped away the tears. She ran towards Max and Liz’s room.
“Daddy!”, she cried, jumping into Max’s arms.
Max closed his eyes and held her close, walking around the room to calm her down and whispering soothing words:
“Shh... it’s okay, little bee... daddy’s here...”
“I—I had a bad dream”, she sobbed, her chubby rosy cheeks wet with tears.
“It’s okay, baby... it’s over... it was just a bad dream...”
“I’m scared, daddy”, she whispered.
“Don’t be, sweetie. It went away. The bad dream went away. okay? You’re safe now...”
“I was in a field with lotsa blubbles around me and I could walk through them and then suddenly I couldn’t get out of one and I heard cries and saw lots of blood around me. It was so scary, daddy”, Honey laid her head on Max’s shoulder and stuck her thumb in her mouth, something she did whenever she was nervous.
“It’s okay, sweetie... it’s over...”, Max whispered, stroking her hair slowly, but realizing it had been the dream he had been sharing.
“Can I sleep here with you and mommy?”, Honey asked.
“Sure baby”, Max laid down on bed and laid Honey between him and Liz.
“It’s okay, little bee”, Liz whispered to Honey. “It’s okay. That bad dream won’t come back. It won’t, baby, alright?”
Honey nodded and closed her eyes, trying to be as close of her parents as she could.
Max and Liz exchanged a worried look and then tried to go to sleep too.
***
Next morning, to Max and Liz’s relief, Honey hadn’t had any more nightmares and went over to her grandparent’s place as always. They had decided not to talk to her or Zach yet and tell them the possibility that Honey could be becoming half-alien too.
“I gotta tell this to Isabel”, Max said. “Isabel dreamwalks too, she’ll be able to talk to Honey and... tell her the truth. I’m going to try and call her when I get to the office, if I figure I’m not too busy”.
Liz nodded.
“The description of that dream kind of scared me, Max. I hope nothing happens to our little bee”.
Max hugged her protectively, and kissed the top of her head.
“That dream was just a sign. Nothing will happen to Honey, Liz, I promise”.
***
“Isabel?”
“Max? Anything happened? Is everything alright?”
“Well, uh, yeah. Why are you askin’?”
“Well, the last time you’ve called to my work Lizzie had swallowed a cent while Jesse was asleep. Since then I’ve been worried everytime anyone ever calls to my office”.
“It’s okay, Isabel, nothing happened to your children. Well, actually...”
“What?! What? Speak, Max!”
“Actually, it’s something about my kids”.
He heard Isabel sigh with relief.
“Sorry, Max, it’s not that I’m not worried about your children, it’s just, I’m just glad my kids are alright”.
“It’s okay, Isabel”.
“But, what happened to your kids? Are you in your office?”
“Yeah. Just taking a break. I really needed to call you”.
“What’s the matter with them?”
“Isabel, my children are beginning to develop alien powers”.
“Oh my God!”
“Yeah. And I need your help. Last night Honey had a nightmare, and I shared it with her. Soon she’ll begin to dreamwalk, that’s my point”.
“Oh, God—but she’s so young!”
“I know. It just happened. And sometime before, Zach healed her when she fell”.
“Oh goodness. Healed her? Just like that?”
“Yeah. When we came to look, Honey was perfectly healed”.
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to talk to Honey. You’re a dreamwalker too, Isabel, you’re the only one who can help her. Can you please do that?”
“Um, yeah, sure. Just let me know when you want me to”.
“The sooner the better. She was pretty terrified with that dream and me and Liz decided not to tell her anything meanwhile, while you don’t talk to her”.
“Ok. Uh, I think tomorrow I can drop by and talk to her. We haven’t had much work lately”.
“Great. Thanks, Iz. This is really important to me. To all of us”.
“It's okay, you’re welcome, Max”.
***
“Isabel! Thank God you’re here”, without really thinking, Liz hugged her. “Um... I’m, uh, sorry about that. But I’m... I’m kinda worried about my daughter”.
Isabel smiled simpathetically at her.
“Nevermind that, Liz. I know how’s the feeling like. And you’ve heard my... secret, and you’ve been there for me, so this is the least that I can do”.
Liz gave her arm an affectionate, thankful squeeze.
“Thanks, Isabel”.
Isabel smiled.
“You’re welcome. Now I’m gonna go find our little bee”.
“She’s in her room”, Liz said.
Isabel walked towards Honey’s room and knocked.
“Knock knock”, she opened the door and smiled at her niece.
“Aunt Izzy!”, Honey cried joyfully and jumped into her arms.
“Hey sweetie. I missed you. We haven’t seen each other since your birthday, wasn’t it?”
Honey nodded.
“Yeah. I missed you too”.
Isabel smiled and put her down.
“Honey, can I talk to you for a minute?”
Honey nodded, but looking a little suspicious.
“Uh, yeah, aunt Izzie”.
Isabel sat on Honey’s bed.
“Uh, your daddy talked to me yesterday, you know, sweetie, and he told me you had a really weird dream, wanna talk to me about it?”
Honey kept looking at her suspiciously, until she exclaimed, figuring everything out:
“Hey, wait a minute! Daddy told me you were an alien too!”
“He did?”, Isabel repeated. That was new. Max hadn’t told her he had said the truth about them to his daughter, and possibly to his son as well.
“He did”, Honey nodded. “He said Uncle Mikey was one too”.
“Oh”, Isabel said. Michael might not be too happy about this.
“He said Uncle Mikey could make stuff burst out and that you... you saw people’s dreams!!!”
Isabel sighed.
“I do”. Then she decided to be ‘profissional’ again and smiled:
“Now, sweetie, wanna tell me what your dream was about? Maybe I can help you, uh, understanding everything better. That’s why your daddy talked to me yesterday, you know, to help you”.
Honey nodded, now completely trustful.
“Well, in my dream I was in this field and there were lots of bubbles with... things inside”. Her usually transparent and joyful look darkened a little, no doubt in fear after remembering the dream that had haunted last night.
“What kind of things?”, Isabel insisted sweetly.
Honey looked down and then looked at her again.
“There were lotsa different things going on inside those bubbles, like I could see people’s lives goin on. I think that they were dreams”.
‘Oh God’, Isabel thought, biting her lip. ‘Max was right. She might be really becoming a dreamwalker’.
“Why do you say that they were dreams, sweetie?”, Isabel wanted to know.
“Bcause in one of the bubbles I saw a little boy that was flying on a horse, like Pegaso in Hercules. That can’t happen, right?”
Isabel shook her head slowly.
“Right”.
“Then I got inside one of the bubbles and...”, Honey went on, but her gaze darkened again and she looked down. “I got inside one and I couldn’t get out. I heard cries and I started seeing lots of blood around me”.
Isabel nodded slowly, then she smiled softly at her niece.
“Looks like someone was having a nightmare too”.
Honey looked at Isabel.
“What’s happening to me, Aunt Izzy?”
Isabel smiled.
“It means, honey, that you’re becoming a dreamwalker like me. Just like your brother can heal like your daddy, you can dreamwalk people like me, that means, see everybody else’s dreams. You understand what I mean?”
Honey nodded.
“Humm. I think so”.
“You’re developing your powers really fast, just like your brother was capable to heal you perfectly the first time he ever tried. So I wanna tell you something”, Isabel said.
Honey looked at her.
“Dreamwalking is something that can be really fun, you know, and probably no-one but you will have that... ability, but that doesn’t mean you have to check every people’s dreams and get too close of that, all right? It’s something that I think it’s better for you to do only every once in a while... for you to get the handle of it too, you know? At least while you’re a little girl. Okay?”, Isabel explained.
Honey nodded.
“Okay”.
Isabel smiled, stroking her hair.
“That’s my girl. Now, everytime you want to talk about something or have any other dream, you know you can always talk to me. Promise me you’ll do that?”
“I promise”.
“Alright. Someday I’ll teach you how to really start dreamwalking”. Isabel smiled at Honey. “And now I better get going. Gotta go pick Leo, Anny and Lizzie up”.
Honey nodded.
“Okay. Thanks, Aunt Izzy”.
“You’re welcome, sweetie”, Isabel smiled. “Bye-bye”.
***
When Isabel got out of the room, she noticed Max was already home and he was standing in front of Honey’s door.
“Hi, Max”.
“Hi, Isabel. So? How did it went?”, Max asked anxiously.
Isabel smiled at him.
“You were right. She’s becoming a dreamwalker, and soon she’ll start doing the thing right, in spite of her age. But don’t worry. She’ll be okay”.
Max sighed.
“God. Thanks, Iz. Can I just ask you one more favor?”
“Sure”.
“I want you to dreamwalk her, so you can make sure that everything’s doing okay and that she’s not having any other kind of... negative signs in her dreams. Can you please do that for me?”
Isabel nodded.
“Sure”.
Max hugged her.
“Thank you”.
Isabel smiled, then pushed him away softly.
“Max, I have to tell you something”.
“Yeah?”
“Your... children’s alien side is developing really fast. Maybe soon they’ll be able to do everything we do just the same. You and Liz know, they already know, now I know... I think it’s better you tell Michael too”.
“He probably won’t like it much”, Max pointed out. “He’s always been afraid of somebody letting out the truth. And now it’s 4 and 3-year-old kids we’re talking about”.
“I know. But he will be even more pissed if he figures he was the last to know. So, I think that’ll be better for everyone to be aware of what’s going on right now. You do that?”
“Um, okay, then”.
“Great”. Isabel hugged Liz goodbye. “Bye, Liz. It was good to see you”.
“It was good to see you too, Izzy”, Liz replied. Then she smiled at her and whispered: “Thank you”.
Isabel smiled back, before leaving.
“You’re welcome”.