Something brushed my cheek, and I fought the urge to scrub at it. At the same time, Alex sneezed and broke the circle. The candle in front of Vi went out, and she slumped in her chair.
Everyone else jumped out of their seats and rushed to her side. She looked around and blinked. I was the only one still seated. I ran the last few seconds through my mind—I thought I had seen her blow out the candle.
“Vi, are you okay?” said Mom.
“Who do you think that was?” said Seth.
“This is very strange,” said Diana. “Vi, has this ever happened to you before?”
“I don’t know. . . .” Vi put her hand to her head. “I just sort of spaced out for a second, and then I guess I broke the circle. Sorry, everyone.”
“You don’t remember what you said?” Seth asked.
“I didn’t say anything.” Vi frowned at him.
I caught her eye and raised an eyebrow. She cocked her head and looked surprised, like she didn’t know what I might mean.
“Well, we’re not likely to have any more ‘manifestations’ tonight,” said Dad. “Let’s pack it in.”
Everyone talked at once as Diana blew out the other candles and stowed them away. I tucked the packet of articles in my bag. There were quiet exclamations of “fascinating” and “unusual.” I stayed out of the conversations and tried to make sense of what had happened. The discussions finally died out, and we left in groups of twos and threes, sneaking through the backyard to where the cars were parked.
Seth chattered away in my ear the whole way home. He was no longer green; he was geeked.
I wondered if everyone had been fooled by Vi’s performance.
*
I wait on the stone bridge in the woods near Message Circle. The sun is bright overhead, but the leaves filter the light, which is soft and gentle. I can hear the small stream trickling along under the bridge. I am happy and I am waiting for Mac.
I see him come through the woods, along the path. He’s not using his cane, and his stride is long and purposeful. He speeds up when he sees me. In a breath or two he is at my side, and then I am in his arms and we kiss, and I lose track of where we are. I feel dizzy and my head is spinning. When the kiss ends, I turn and we are no longer in the woods, we are in the front of a church and all our friends are there. I am wearing a dress and he is wearing a tux and smiling, smiling.
A slamming door invaded my sleep. It took me a moment to recognize that I was in my parents’ house and not my Ann Arbor apartment. I began the day by cursing myself for coming back to Crystal Haven.
I had come to think of it as the wedding dream. It was the dream that had changed everything. The first few times I had the dream, it started with Grace’s wedding. I could see Paul clearly, and I knew the wedding was in New York City. I was devastated when Grace took this information and packed up to move to New York. Even though she was jealous of my “talent” and called me “psycho sister,” she believed as much as my mother in the prescience of my dreams. But I missed her the way only a younger sibling can miss an adored big sister. After Grace met Paul, the dream changed and focused on the part where Mac and I were together. The beginning was different each time, but it always ended the same. It visited every year or so and left me feeling sad and confused. Sad that I had once believed it to be true, and confused that it persisted even after all this time.
*
I was still thinking about Mac and the way his face had fallen when he realized I had known about Dean, while I sipped my coffee in Mom’s kitchen that morning.
I took a deep breath. I felt cooped up in this house with my dreams and memories. I decided to go out to Message Circle and think things through. Before I was old enough to have a gun, walking through the woods and sitting at Message Circle had been my therapy.
I took a fast shower, yanked my hair into a ponytail, threw on my jeans and a T-shirt, and grabbed my car keys. I planned to spend some time in Greer’s Woods and be back in time to go on dog rounds with Seth.
Twenty minutes later, I stood on the bridge from my dream. I had taken the long way from the parking lot just to see it again and dispel the feeling from the dream. It was overcast, so the light was different. I heard the birds call to each other and the squirrels chatter, which drowned out the sounds of the stream. Then I saw Mac coming down the path, but he was using his cane. He made his way carefully up the bridge to meet me in the center.
“Clyde.” He gave a quick nod.
No embrace, no kiss.
“Mac. What are you doing out here?”
“I was on my way to your house to talk to you and saw you drive away.”
“You followed me?”
“It’s not like I’m stalking you. I just wanted to talk,” he said.
I waved my cell phone at him.
“You know I hate the telephone.”