The showers begin to dim. Finally I drop my arms, shake ’em out for a second, and then I turn around to head home. I check my watch and see that it’s nearly three thirty. Later than I thought, but not so bad. I’ll be home long before anyone’s awake.
I stretch and let out a huge yawn as I walk back toward the path, and then I stop and almost laugh in my sleepiness. Until I get back to the tree where I left my bicycle.
It’s gone.
Sure it’s dark and all I have is a flashlight to guide me as I go from tree to tree searching, but I know exactly which tree I propped it up against. Now I’m runnin’, but where the hell can I run to? The bike didn’t just take itself for a joyride! And I know ain’t nobody been up here or I’da heard ’em. The sweat from biking uphill earlier has now dried and makes me shiver in my thin jacket.
How could this have happened? Of all the things I was worried about, losing my bike wasn’t one of ’em! I just stand there like a moron, not knowing what to do. I can’t go home without that bike. To make matters worse, I’m suddenly so tired I can’t keep my thoughts straight. I return to the tree where I know—I KNOW!—I parked my bike. I slide down to the ground, lying back against the trunk. I rub my hands together for warmth and close my eyes. If I could just rest for a few minutes, maybe I’ll have a better idea of what to do.
In my eyes-closed world. Stars and meteor showers and distant galaxies right up in my face. I’m floating up to greet ’em. I’m up high in the atmosphere, and when I look down below, there’s Clay. I wave at him, but he don’t wave back. He looks like he’s shoutin’ something at me, but all I can see are his lips movin’. Can’t hear a word. I notice I’m gettin’ closer to the nexus of the swirling circle of blue, and I can feel its heat. It’s the opposite of what you’d think: blue stars are the hottest and red are the coolest. I look down again, and where Clay was, Daddy now stands. He smiles and waves up to me with a cigarette danglin’ out the side of his mouth.
“Daddy? Look at me! Look up here!”
“I see you, pudd’n’,” he calls. “I see you.”
I look up again and now see that I’m headed straight for a giant ball of blue flames and I’m picking up speed and I don’t know how to stop myself. I scream for Daddy, but now his body is wrapped in chains from his neck down to his feet. His eyes full of tears. He can’t protect me.
I awaken to a weird feeling, like breath. I start to fully wake up, glad that what I just experienced was a regular dream and nothing more. I focus my eyes and jump, but steady myself just as quick. Something sits on my chest, breathing warm tiny breaths into my face. A little cottontail. I’ve never been this close to one before, but here she is, sittin’ on me like we’re old friends.
“Hey there,” I say as softly as possible. Her breath comes quick, and I can feel her tiny heartbeat going a mile a minute.
“You scared?” I whisper to her. She stares into my eyes. Then she takes her little back foot and she tap, tap, taps it on my abdomen.
“What are you doin’?” I ask her.
She stares at me and doesn’t answer, since she’s just a rabbit. Then she does it again, the tap tap tapping. I’m about to try to go into her head (never done that with an animal before, but how hard can it be?) when she hops off me and scampers away at the hint of a sound and then a blur sails past my line of vision.
“Hello?” I call out, not sure what I just saw, but it’s a lot clearer than it would’ve been before I closed my eyes, because the sky is starting to lighten. I check my watch. Five after five. This is not good.
From the other direction, it comes again, but slower this time. Slow enough for me to see that the blur is riding my bike.
“Hey!” I yell. “HEY!”
The bicycle thief pedals backward this time until his eyes meet mine.
Oh. Shit.
“You call? I come,” says the black-haired stranger with his slimy smile. I cross my arms around my chest as tight as I can to keep my hands from trembling. I try to casually look around to see if the rest of his cronies are here, but he seems to be alone.
“That is my bicycle. Give it back.”
“Oh, this? This is yours?”
I nod like a fool. Of course he knows it’s mine.
He squints his eyes at me like he’s tryna put me into focus.
“You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Yes, I do!” As if I could forget! “You and your friends were messin’ with me and my boyfriend. We never did nothin’ to you.” I hate how desperate I sound, but I’m scared as hell and of what? This pale, skinny bully can’t be worth this much fear.
He lets go of the bike, and it falls to the ground with a clatter. I shut my eyes and wish him gone. I open my eyes. I don’t get my wish.
“No. Before that. We knew each other a long time ago.”
I haven’t the foggiest idea of what he’s talking about, and for all I know he’s lying, so I’m just thinkin’ on how I can snatch the bike back and hop on it before he can stop me. I ain’t figured this out yet.
“We used to play. Games. Hide-and-seek. Red Rover. Freeze tag. You gotta remember some of it?”
I don’t remember. Can’t remember. Why can’t I? Who is he? Why can’t I—
He moves closer to me.
