10. MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION
“SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?” Cali asked when the video ended. “Did it look anything like your dream?”
“The video wasn’t that clear,” Leesa said, “but yeah, it definitely seemed similar.”
Cali pecked at the keyboard again, searching for another video, one that might show things more clearly, but there were none.
“That was the only video,” she said, closing the laptop. “You got any idea what the heck is going on?”
Leesa thought for a moment. That was the million dollar question. What the heck did this all mean? She closed her eyes and tried to bring back the images from her dream, but she kept seeing the pictures in the video. She wondered if she was making the two more similar than they really were, if her brain was taking the fresher images and making them part of her memory. Even if that was true, how had she managed to dream about corpses rising from their graves the night before real bodies were found in a graveyard—a graveyard less than ten miles away, no less. That in itself was strange enough, regardless how similar or not the actual images were. And she was pretty sure there had been a tri-cornered hat in her dream. Her brain wasn’t making that detail up.
“I don’t know,” she said finally. “I really don’t have a clue.”
Cali could see how disturbed Leesa was by all this. She draped her arm around Leesa’s shoulder.
“Maybe it’s just one of those freaky coincidences. Like déjà vu or something, only in reverse. Has anything like this ever happened to you before?”
Leesa shook her head. “No, never. My sleep’s been kinda messed up the last week or two, but that’s about it. This is the first weird dream I remember.”
“Well, if anyone has a reason to have a few sleepless nights or some weird dreams, it would be you, with all you’ve been through recently. Your mom and the one-fang, the thing with Stefan to get your brother back—I’d be having nightmares, for sure.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Leesa grabbed a bottle of water from atop her mini-fridge and took a drink. “But I wasn’t having any dreams while all that was happening. Not that I can remember, anyhow. So why now?”
Cali shrugged. “There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” she quoted.
Leesa grinned. “Now I’m really amazed. Since when did you start quoting Shakespeare?”
Cali smiled back. “That’s one of the few things I remember from high school. Never thought I’d actually get a chance to use it, though. Are you impressed?”
“Totally.” Leesa took another swallow of water, then asked, “Got any more words of wisdom for me from ol’ Will?”
“Just this: ‘To be or not to be.’ But damned if I know how that applies here, though.”
Leesa laughed. Cali was always so good at cheering her up.
“Too bad there won’t be any of that on my English Lit final,” Cali continued.
“Speaking of finals, I’d better get back to my physics homework, or that’s one final that will kick my ass.”
“I’m glad I don’t have physics,” Cali said as she got up off the bed. “Algebra is hard enough for me. Why’d you take that class, anyhow?”
Leesa smiled. “To quote a very wise person of my acquaintance, ‘damned if I know.’”
Cali cracked up. “Good one, Lees,” she said when she finished laughing. She turned and headed for the door. “Have fun with your physics.”
“Yeah, sure,” Leesa said as she sat down at her desk.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Cali said.
Leesa turned and saw that Cali was halfway out the door, but had grabbed the doorframe and twisted around to face back into the room.
“What’s that?” Leesa asked.
Cali grinned. “Sweet dreams tonight.”
Leesa picked up a pen from her desk and threw it toward the door, but Cali spun out of the way before the pen could hit her.
“Thanks a lot,” Leesa said, laughing. She could hear Cali laughing as well as she headed down the hall.