Flash Fiction – “Meeting Place”

This is a bonus chapter, make sure you read The Key first. 🙂

Previous Chapter

Chapter 6 – Meeting Place

If I’m not dreaming about the future, I don’t dream at all.  When I tell someone that I don’t dream they always look at me with this sad look and tell me that they’re sorry, they’ll insist that I actually dream but I just don’t remember the dreams, or they’ll think I’m just strange.  What they don’t know, though, is that if I’m not having a vision, I’m not just sleeping with a blank mind.  What happens is that if I don’t have a vision, when I’m asleep it’s like I’m in a different level of consciousness.  I’ll suddenly be in a house that doesn’t exactly exist in the waking world.  It’s like the place that all of the Jensen women go to relax when we’re not having visions.

It’s a beautiful old house full of soft light and the most comfortable couches, chairs, and beds to relax on.  If I happen to be asleep at the same time that one of my relatives is asleep and they aren’t having a vision either, we’ll both be in the house and can interact with each other or not depending on our moods.  We fondly refer to it as The Meeting Place.  Occasionally I can force myself to go to the Meeting Place so that I can seek out advice from my relatives, but I can’t always do it because at twenty-three my power is still considered young and not very strong.

The night that I’d had dinner with Josh I wanted to go to the Meeting Place so badly that I fell asleep in record time and without having to try I awoke in the house.  I was sitting on the couch and my mom looked up from a knitting project she was working on.  It always seemed weird to me that she would knit in her sleep, but she would just tell me “People need hand knits whether they’re asleep or awake, honey.”

She looked up from her needles and smiled, “Well hi…”

“Oh my god, Mom… I saw him again.  After I called you I was walking home and he was just there.  He lives in one of those brownstones that I love so much.  He’s been there for three years.  Three years and I’ve never run into him!  And he has a Frenchie named Krypto.”

“From Superman?”

“Yes!” I cried and bounced with excitement.  My dad had been the biggest Superman fan that I’d ever known.  I had tons of Superman memorabilia because it reminded me of him.  Emerald had even made my work apron out of vintage Superman comic book fabric.

My mom smiled and rested her hand on mine, “I’m so happy for you, honey…”

“He even said that he felt like he’d known me before and that he felt like he’d dreamed of me.  Honestly, that kind of freaked me out, but holy crap, Ma… He’s so… wonderful.”

“I can’t wait to meet him.”

“I want the twins to meet him too, but I also don’t want to spring the whole family on him.  I need to see if they can read him now that he’s real.”

“That’s actually a really good idea.  I’ll do the same, of course. “

I nodded, “But in the meantime I’m hoping that maybe finally knowing him will trigger more visions including him.  Something that’ll help me understand how long I’ll have with him before…”

My mom squeezed my hand, “Try not to dwell on that.  Enjoy this part and the rest will be dealt with when you get to it.”

“I know…” I said and nodded.  “I keep telling myself that and reminding myself that he doesn’t know that I’ve known about him for ten years.  I’m trying so hard to just enjoy getting to know him instead of over analyzing everything.  It’s really difficult though.”

“I’m sure it is.  I can only imagine all of the questions that you have running through your head now that he’s real.”

“So many questions…” I said with a sigh and leaned against my mom with my head on her shoulder.

“Is he a good kisser?”

I lifted my head to look at her, not at all surprised to hear that she already knew I’d kissed Josh.  I nodded and giggled, “Yuh huh…”

She chuckled and linked her arm with mine as I put my head back on her shoulder.  “I knew that, but I really wanted to hear you say it.”

I laughed, “So wait… did you actually see us kiss or did you just know it happened?”

“I just knew about it.  I didn’t spy on you, and I wouldn’t want to.”

“Please don’t…” I laughed.  “There are some things I don’t need you to see.”

“Exactly.”

“How old were you when you when you first started to have more control over your power?”

“Actually, I was the same age you are now.  I think the twins were twenty-three when they started to figure out theirs too.  It happens at all different ages, but for some reason twenty-three seems to be pretty common in our branch of the family tree.”

“Weird… I wonder what mine is going to be.  Other than having the same freaking vision for ten years, that is.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see.  But I think your power is going to be special.  I think you’re going to surprise all of us with what you can do.”

“I’m not sure if I like that…” I said and chuckled.  “I’m already the weirdo of the family, I don’t necessarily need my power to be all wonky.”

My mom chuckled, “Not wonky, just different.”

I laughed again, “Uh huh…”

One of my aunts, Gina, walked into the room from the kitchen and sat on a couch opposite of the one we were on, “Well isn’t this a happy little family reunion?  It’s been a while since so many of us wound up here at the same time.”

“Elle met the Mystery Guy…” my mom said excitedly.

“No shit?! Dude, tell me everything!”

We all laughed and I began to get up, “Coffee first, then I’ll give you the whole story, Aunt Gigi.”  Another awesome part of the Meeting Place was that any food or drink we craved while we were there would just suddenly appear as long as we went to get it from the kitchen.

Gina had a thoughtful look on her face as she looked at my mom, “I wonder if I can get Gen to join us… she’ll be so pissed if she misses this.”

“Wait.  You can call her from here?  When the heck did that happen?”

Gina shrugged, “Let me try…”

I stood where I was, totally amazed with my aunt and watched as she closed her eyes and seemed to meditate.  She didn’t speak or move, she just sat there quietly.  I occasionally looked back and forth between her and my mom.  Mom was the oldest of the three, older by four years.  She always had that proud big sister look on her face when Gina or Genevieve used their power in creative new ways.  All of us looked so much alike that when we were together in public people generally thought we were sisters.  We all had dark chocolate brown hair and matching brown eyes.  Our skin was a light tan year round thanks to having multiple ethnicities mixed in our family history.  My mom had the prettiest long curly hair while I had the same curls but would whine that my hair was “too long” if it came within an inch of my shoulders.  Gen and Gina both kept their hair shorter than mine and Gina tended to have pretty radical hair styles like shaving half of her head or daily straightening so that she could spike it.

A moment later my aunt Gen appeared on the couch next to Gina with an excited look on her face, “Tell me everything!”

I stared at her and Gina with my mouth open in amazement, “What the hell just happened?  How did you do that?  That’s astonishing!”

“I honestly have no idea what I did, but it worked.  Get the coffee and then get your ass back in here and tell us about your guy!”

The rest of the evening was spent dishing over Josh and what my life was going to look like with him in it.  We’d been doing that for years, but it was much more exciting to do now that he had an actual name and was really there.  As the sun came up and I realized that it was about time for my alarm to go off, I said my goodbyes to my family and promised to meet them for dinner in the real world that evening.  I woke up in my bed totally refreshed and eager about the opportunity to see Josh again but also a little bit of dread in my heart about how much time, or rather how little time, I would get with him.

Chapter 7

😃