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61
Night Dreams

Lee popped out of sleep and sat up in bed. She'd been dreaming—a dream that had both thrilled and frightened her, then slipped away at the moment of wakening. Briefly she tried to get it back, examine it, but it was gone, like air squeezed in a fist.

She looked around. Ben was not in bed, and it was still dark. The clock read 01:03. Sitting up, she swung her feet out, and with them located her slippers. She found Ben in the kitchen; he'd turned on the beverage machine. He grinned at her, a bright-eyed grin, but her attention hadn't regained focus.

"You're up early," he said.

"So are you."

He laughed. "Yep." Placing his cup beneath the decaf spout, he pressed the button. The black liquid flowed till he took his finger away.

"What got you up?" Lee asked.

"I woke up and decided I was done sleeping for a while. How about you?"

"I—" She shrugged. "A dream woke me. I don't remember what it was about."

His grin widened. "How did it feel? The dream."

She looked puzzled. "It was—a dream." She gestured toward the decaf he held. "Do you plan to stay up?"

"Might as well. I'm wide awake. I'll read for an hour and see what happens."

Lee frowned. Ordinarily Ben slept like a baby until the alarm woke him. "I'm going back to bed before I get any more awake than I am," she said.

He put down his cup, took her shoulders in his hands, and softly kissed her. "Go do it. I'll be fine."

As she left the kitchen, she heard what could only be the girls' slippers. What in the world were they doing up? She felt a brief impulse to check, but shuffled back to bed instead, hoping to fall quickly asleep again.

She did. She had more dreaming to do.

* * *

The girls had started for the kitchen, then heard their parents talking, and stopped in the hall. When the voices stopped, they hurried back into their room and to bed, in case their mother looked in on them.

Several minutes later they got up again, and went to the kitchen. They found their stepfather drinking decaf, and reading. He looked at them and grinned. "Dreams?" he asked.

Becca nodded. "I'll bet yours woke you up too. What did you dream?"

Ben looked at them. He was still grinning. "You tell me," he suggested.

"Dove went to the astral plane tonight, didn't he?" Raquel piped.

Ben put a finger to his lips. "Ssh! We don't want mom to hear. She'd be upset. But yes, I think he did. I think he was telling us all goodbye, this time from the astral plane."

"Then the Infinite Soul is being Dove now. Right, Dad?" Becca asked.

"I expect so."

"What do we call him?" Raquel asked. "Still Dove?"

"I would think so, yes."

"Can we have some hot chocolate?"

"That sounds like a good idea. You two and I have something to talk about."

The girls got their thermal mugs from their hooks and drew hot chocolates. "We already know not to tell Mom," Becca said.

"Right. You realize we're not the easiest people for her to live with these days."

"Easier than Mark," Raquel sniffed. "He liked to make Mom feel like dog-doo. Even I remember that."

"I used to want her to hit him with something," Becca put in. "A baseball bat."

Ben was impressed. Ordinarily Becca was calm and even-tempered. "So we're not going to mention any of this at home," he said. "Okay?"

"Of course we won't," Raquel answered.

"She's going to find out anyway," Becca pointed out.

"Sooner or later. But let's not have it be here at home."

Becca cocked an eye, frowning, looking as if she was examining the statement. "It would be a lot easier for her if she'd just read some of Dove's talks. She'd have an explanation then, even if she didn't believe it."

"I've suggested that to her. She says she doesn't have time. 'Maybe later.' " He set quotation marks with his fingers.

Becca shrugged. "I'm glad I didn't grow up with her parents. It had to be tough, being a late-cycle mature warrior, growing up with a fledgling warrior mother and a fledgling priest father. No common reality, just orders and lectures! I suppose it was something she had to experience for the lessons, but she's my mom, and I hate to see her go through stuff like she does."

Raquel went to Ben and hugged his neck. "I'm glad she's married to you now," she said.

"Why, thank you, Miss Shoreff. I'm glad too."

Legally the girls still wore Mark's name, but they'd have been offended if he'd used it. They were even registered in school as Shoreff.

The three of them finished their drinks quietly, as if thinking. Even Raquel said nothing more till they were nearly done. It was Ben who broke the quiet.

"It'd be a good idea for you two to go back to bed now. There's school tomorrow."

"Are you going back to bed too?" Raquel asked.

"Yes, I think I will. I thought I'd sit up and read awhile, but I guess what I really wanted was to talk to you guys."

They all went back to bed then, and before long even the girls were asleep.

 

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