Once home, Kevin got out of the truck and unlocked and opened the front door. He turned back around to make his way back to the truck, Diana passing him to make her way into the house. He smiled, shaking his head, knowing she would go to each room to make sure everything was safe for her ‘parents’ to come in.
He opened the passenger-side door and picked up Morgan. He was starting to get worried; it had taken more than two hours to get back to Melbourne, due to a wreck out on the expressway, and she was still asleep. He carried her into the house and into their bedroom, laid her gently on the bed, took her shoes off and covered her carefully with the comforter.
He then walked quietly out to the living room, opened the sliding glass door to let Diana out back, then made his way to the kitchen for a glass of wine. With his wine in hand, he walked back into the living room and answered the ringing telephone.
“Hello?” he answered tiredly.
“It’s about time you answered a phone! Did you turn off your cell phone, sweetie?”
“Hi, Mom. Yeah, I turned my phone off because I didn’t want it to ring and wake up Morgan on the way home,” he explained.
“Is she ok? How’s Kylie?”
“Morgan’s fine, just very tired. And Kylie is much better, her fever broke. Morgan made her drink a tea to break the fever, then went into a trance to pray & went too deep; she’s just exhausted,” Kevin explained, sitting down heavily on the couch, stretching his long legs in front of him. Diana came in and nudged his hand, wanting attention. “Go to the bedroom, Diana; go stay next to Momma.”
“I was glad ya’ll called me when you got back to Orlando, but I’ve been worried about Kylie. You sound tired, Kev. I’ll let you & Morgan rest; I’ll just give Denise a call and ask how everybody is.”
“Ok, Mom. I promise I’ll call you tomorrow. I think I just need sleep. It was not an easy drive back home. There was a bad wreck out on the expressway and it took a lot longer to get home. My legs & back hurt, so I’m drinking a glass of wine to relax, then I think I’m gonna go to bed,” he explained.
Just then, Diana ran back out and let out one of her ‘puppy yelps’, nipped at Kevin’s hand, then turned back to the bedroom. She took two steps in that direction then looked at Kevin. When he didn’t get up to follow, she ran back to him and yipped again.
“Mom, I have to go, something’s not right!” he said. He didn’t give his mother time to say goodbye before he hung up the phone and followed the running wolf into the bedroom.
“Morgan, baby! Wake up!” Kevin said, holding Morgan against him, grabbing her hands before she hit him accidentally. “Wake up, you’re dreaming!” He said it, but he had learned quickly that if she cried out like this, something was definitely not right.
“NO!” she screamed, opening her eyes quickly. She saw Kevin’s eyes, dark with worry & fear and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh Gods, Kevin! It was too real!”
“I kinda figured that, sweetheart! It’s gonna be ok. Everything’s fine. I’m here,” he said softly, rocking her back and forth in his arms, gently stroking her hair as her sobs died down. He knew that if she could remember the dream, she would need to talk about it; he just needed to calm her down first. Diana whined loudly, yipped once and nudged Kevin’s leg. “Alright, you big baby, come up here. Curl up with me & momma.” Kevin leaned back against the headboard of the bed, holding Morgan against him. She laid her head against his shoulder, her hand resting on his chest. Diana jumped onto the bed, curled up beside Morgan and laid her head across her lap. Feeling his hand in her hair and his strong arms around her, Morgan began to breathe normally again. She hated it when her dreams were so vivid: it usually meant that something tragic was going to happen.
“Do you remember anything, sweetheart?” Kevin asked quietly.
“Blood; lots of blood! I don’t remember much else. I just wish I knew what this dream meant,” she said. “I hate dreams like those! Why me, Kev? Why do I have to always have these horrible dreams? I don’t mind it if they are bad; it’s the violent ones that scare me so bad!”
“They scare me, too. It’s especially rough when you start hitting me in your sleep!” he laughed softly.
“Oh, don’t remind me about that!” she said, remembering the night before Christmas. She had a strange dream before Kevin had come to bed. Later that night, though, she had another strange dream, again full of anger and hatred. The next day, Kevin’s ex-wife had shown up at his mom’s house and had tried to cause problems.
“I’m scared, Kev; I haven’t had such a violent dream in years! The last time I had a dream like that, my mom died two days later,” she said, as she began to cry.
Kevin could hear the fear and pain in her voice and felt her tears fall and soak through his shirt. He didn’t know what else to do except hold her til her tears stopped and she slept once again.
