”Vancouver?” I shouted in surprise. ”I thought we said Seattle!”
”We were in Seattle, and then we flew here,” he tried to calm me. ”You slept like a rock, and I didn’t want to wake you up.”
Wow, I must have been driving on the road in the desert for a very long time. I decided I didn’t want to tell Jacob about that dream. He would freak out.
”But how?” I started.
”I carried you,” he said and smiled wryly.
”But how did we get through the security?” Don’t you have to show some signs of life to get through?
”We’re here now, and that’s what matters, right?”
”Right. Thanks.”
”No problem.”
I looked around the room. The walls were of some color between yellow and beige. It reminded me of something I didn’t want to think about.
I sat in a couch with flower patterns. Ugly, I thought. In front of me was a table with a flower on it. On the wall to my right was a painting of flowers. Behind the table was a flat-screen TV on a small desk.
There was a wall-to-wall carpet on the floor. It was dust gray. Ugly, too.
I turned to see what was behind me. The first thing I noticed was the bedspread. It had a flower pattern.
”What’s with all of these flowers?” I asked.
Jacob just laughed.
I chuckled. ”I mean, it’s really ugly.”
He laughed even harder.
Behind the bed was a panoramic window and a glass door that led to a balcony. My very impression of the room was that it was very small, and it looked like the furniture had been pushed inside.
Beside the TV was a door, and to my left was another one.
”Where are we anyway?” I asked, still sleepy.
”I told you, remember? Vancouver.” He sat down beside me and stroke my cheek.
”Yes but where in Vancouver?”
He smiled secretly. ”What do I get for it?” His teeth showed behind his lips; he enjoyed this.
”Hey!” I complained and punched his stomach. He laughed at me.
”That’s not fair!”
”So what do I get?”
”You know I could just go out that door and see.”
He took a firm grip around me. ”Really? You can? Good luck with getting inside again, if you get out that is.” He was so smug I wanted to hit him, but I couldn’t since he held me so tight.
I growled.
He continued laughing. ”What do I get, huh? What?”
I knew that if I didn’t say anything soon he would start tickling me, and I couldn’t handle that. ”Kiss?”
”I guess that’s fair enough.” He leaned in and closed his eyes.
”But I want to know where we are first”
He groaned.
I laughed. ”Fine.”
I kissed him. Long. He kissed me back.
He was just beginning to lower his hands when I stopped. He growled playfully and was just about to tickle me, but I caught his hands before he got so far.
”Now it’s your turn to answer my question.”
He laughed at my expression. ”Guess.”
”I don’t know, a hotel?”
”You’re smarter than you think. Or maybe more stupid than you think, since you gave up although you knew the answer.” He seemed pleased with his conclusion.
”What if I just wanted to kiss you?”
”Then feel free to do it again.”
Now I was the one to laugh at his expression.
”What?”
”You should have seen your face!” I just couldn’t stop laughing at his lips and eyebrows being curved exactly the same way. ”I think I should invent a camera that is placed in your head, so that you can take a picture anytime you’d like. Smart huh?”
”Very. Just one question. How were you planning to get the pictures out of your head?”
I laughed even harder than before. ”So you don’t think it’s a problem to get the camera into your head?”
”No,” he said smugly.
”Why not?”
”Because I have a photographic memory.”
”Ah, I see! Smart! Then we’ll just have to invent the wire from the brain to the computer. Great!”
”Or maybe bluetooth.”
We both laughed at our crazy conversation. Then we didn’t say anything for a while. As we sat there in the sofa, staring at each other’s faces, I started thinking about my dream. I was careful not to touch Jake with my hands; I really didn’t want him to know about it. Or at least what I thought of it.
The two babies had been very beautiful, and they had looked similar, though still not similar at all. I couldn’t remember right now, but somehow I’d known it had been a boy and a girl. I guess I knew it in the dream-way; you always knew things in dreams, though you couldn’t explain them later.
I tried to clear out the vision of the two babies. The girl had been dark-skinned, though not African. Kind of like Jacob. Actually, when I thought about it, she looked a lot like him. The cheekbones were exactly the same. But her eyes. They were golden, like topaz. And in the next second, they were red.
A vampire’s eyes.
I moved on to the boy. His skin was anything but dark. It was pale like snow. And I recognized his face, too. It looked a lot like the girl’s but more like...me.
I winced. The boy was the one who had called my name, and I remembered looking into his eyes as well. His eyes had been brown like Jacob’s.
I gasped as I understood.
”Hey, what are you thinking?” Jacob asked me quietly.
What was I supposed to tell him? ”Nothing.” Okay, that gave me more time to think.
He took my chin in his big, warm hand and forced me to meet his gaze. ”You know I don’t like it when you lie. Because I can see that you are.” Just like my mother, I was a terrible liar. At least when I lied to Jacob.
”I just thought of a nightmare I had a few nights ago. It was a mistake to bring it up to myself.” At least there was something true in that sentence.
”Want to talk about it?”
”Nope. Absolutely not.”
”Okay.”
I rose and went over to the glass-door. I opened it and went outside to the balcony.
There was a light breeze, and I stretched my arms. There was an afternoon-light over the city and I started to wonder what time it actually was. I took a look on my left wrist, but then I realized I had forgot my watch on the kitchen table; I had pulled it off during our dramatic dinner.
”Damn,” I muttered to myself.
”What’s wrong?” Jacob asked from one and a half step behind me. This shouldn’t have startled me, but it did.
”Forgot my watch at home,” I told him.
”I’m sure you can manage without. I never wear one.”
”Maybe because it’s just a liability for you.” I wasn’t sure how close our nearest balcony-neighbors were, so I tried to avoid mythological words, like werewolf for instance.
He chuckled at my statement. ”You really need to know the time?”
I nodded.
”Don’t move,” he told me. Three seconds later he was back again. ”Ten to five.”
”Ten to five?!” I really wasn’t prepared for that. ”Whoa!”
”What did you expect?” He smiled at my reaction.
I sighed. ”I don’t know. Just...nah, I don’t know.”
He took my hands, and I intertwined his fingers with mine.
Thank you, I thought.
He smiled, bent his neck, and kissed my nose.
Thank you, I thought again.
He continued smiling.