Seducing Jennifer Pt. 32

"Yeah. I guess I never really thought about it, but we always have the dream after we drink it."

"But that can't be the whole explanation. What I don't understand is, you had been there before we ever started drinking the tea, right?"

I thought carefully. I hadn't fully realized it until just now, but I had been to the dream-world before. Long before. As a very young child I had gone there often and frequently returned to this world screaming and crying, because I had been searching frantically for my mother. A woman who looked nothing like the cold stiff person who I was told was my mother. A woman who looked like me.

As I grew older the dreams became less frequent and much less frightening. People in the dream world were kind and sympathetic, and always fed me and tried to help me, but I still could not find my mother or any of her immediate family. It provoked horrifying memories, and I preferred not to go there. I hadn't put it all together before, but I now realized that it was the same world Jennifer and I went to every night.

"The first time recently was after I'd been through a lot of stress," I said. "That must have pushed me over the edge, or opened up my mind to it, or something like that. I'm wondering if most people who get to that world are taken there by some kind of genetic code. But then there's the tea. I think it was something called "Dreamwalker Tea." It was only supposed to be used by people who were out of their minds with grief or in severe pain. I first tasted it when I was in the dream-world, actually. I'd been under a lot of stress...I fell asleep, and there I was. With you, and your mom."

"So if you're not Cherokee genetically, you can still get there by using the tea? I guess it makes sense in a totally weird way. But how did Mom get there the first time?"

I shrugged. "I think she had access to the tea before we did. Maybe she got it from Vholes. I don't know. It doesn't even matter, because to fully understand this you would have to be a quantum physicist, one of the two or three in the world who can actually grasp String Theory. Pocket universes and all that. Anything we can imagine must exist somewhere. And a whole lot of things we can't imagine."

We sat in silence for a while, sipping juice and trying to get our heads around what was happening to us. A brisk knock came at the door.

"Vholes already?" I jumped up and went to the door.

It was Mary Louise and Tommy. "Forget something?" I said.

"Yeah. We forgot we were checked into the Hotel California. That asshole at the front desk wouldn't let us out!"

"Come on in and sit down then." They sat on the couch next to Jennifer, holding hands. Mary Louise was trembling, her eyes wide with fright.

"That man wasn't at all polite! He told us to get back up here and wait for Mr. Vholes!"

"Whoa. There has to be some kind of misunderstanding." I went to the kitchen and poured them glasses of juice. "Vholes will straighten all this out when he gets here. Carlo got his orders mixed up, that's all." I sat down on the couch next to Jennifer and patted her leg.

"That ain't all, Dude." Tommy held out his cell phone. "You tried to make a call lately? No service. Nothing. Same thing with Little Red's phone."

"Oh, turn up the TV, Jack!" Jennifer said. "There's a breaking news flash."

I thumbed the remote and heard, "—may be connected to the bombing of a limousine belonging to billionaire investor Hyman Hershkowitz. Although it has been officially denied by Mayor Bumper, a source within the police department asserts that there seems to be a gang war in progress between two major organized crime syndicates. It is believed that the explosion of the currently unidentified automobile early this morning may have been retaliation for the alleged murders of Mr. Hershkowitz, his driver, and an unknown female companion last week. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming—" A sweating preacher in a white linen suit appeared on the screen. "And GAWD, I say, GAWD, will reward all those who obey Him and punish those who do not!" I muted the TV.

We sat in stunned silence for a few minutes. "Whoever got blown up this morning, I damn sure hope it wasn't Vholes," Tommy said somberly. "Or we are really and truly screwed."