Dream Catcher by Chrys Romeo - HTML preview

Dream Catcher

by Chrys Romeo

Copyright: Chrys Romeo 2014

It started when he was twelve: that was when he found the dream

catcher.

He found it on a deserted beach, swinging in the breeze, tied up on the

branch of a tree. It was a beautiful dream catcher, like a blue spider web

shining in sunlight. It seemed to sing to him somehow, a mysterious whistle

that he heard through the swirls of dust, sand and the roar of the waves. The

feathers hanging on the small circle were turquoise and seemed to whisper

softly something unknown. He looked at it with his greenish eyes like the

sea water and he felt an instant connection to the lonesome object, just as he

felt a connection to the waves and the distant horizon, breathing with him

each sunrise, each moment he was walking on the warm burning sand or

jumping on the rocks washed by the tide with rough edges covered in algae

and empty seashells clinging to the stone through time. He knew the beach

well, but he had never seen anything like that dream catcher before. It was

unusual that the object was there. It was something in that dream catcher

that reminded him of the powerful appealing mystery of the sea, the

deserted beach and the eternal horizon. He was an athletic and agile boy, so

he climbed the tree and reached out to the branch the dream catcher was tied

to.

Lucky – because that was his name – had a gift for finding lost objects,

people and places he had never been to. When someone from his entourage

was looking for something, they always called him, because he had an

unexplained instinct to go exactly in the right direction. So he was not

surprised when he found the dream catcher in the tree. “Finders keepers”,

he thought. He was a curious boy, so he untied the string from the branch

and took the dream catcher home, being mesmerized by it from the first

moment.

He hanged the round object in his room. From that day on, his life

magically improved: he got the best grades at school, won the first prizes in

any contest he got in, went to college and achieved everything he set his

mind to. He started to believe he had some surreal powers that the dream

catcher had infused in his existence. He was convinced the presence of the

dream catcher was magical. Sometimes when he looked at it, the spider web

seemed to sparkle mysteriously and he could almost hear the turquoise

feathers whisper and sing imperceptibly as they moved swiftly. It was a

sound similar to the dim resonance of the waves in a seashell brought closer

to the ear; it was like an incantation.

On the night he turned twenty one – the reversed numbers of twelve -

he had an unusual dream: he was at his summer beach house and he was

holding the dream catcher in his hand. It was midnight and there was a

storm at sea. The waves were crashing on the rocks along the shore. He

looked at the dream catcher in the dark: through the web of the shiny circle

he could see rays of light in many colors, going out above the waves, like

laser lines pointing to a distant place in the storm.

“You"ve got the key. You must warn them” he heard a voice.

It was a clear voice, a woman"s voice resonating with energy and

inspiring him to action. It had something warm and a magical vibe to it. At

the same moment when he distinguished the words, he found himself in the

middle of the storm, out at sea, on a piece of land like a small pier made of

rocks and broken cement columns. The rays of light flooded the pier in

many colors and the stormy clouds above had turned orange and pink. The

voice could be heard louder and louder, getting nearer.

“You must go there. You must tell them.”

“Go where? Tell what? To whom?” he asked, looking around and not

seeing anyone.

He was half aware that he was immersed in a dream, but something

about it seemed more real than just a fantastic projection.

“You must tell them”, the voice spoke again. “You must go back there.”

“Go back where? And where am I now anyway? Who are you?” he

asked looking around helplessly.

The rays of light gathered in a spot and a holographic image appeared

inside the colorful curtain. It was the silhouette of a person. It looked like a

person, but it was made of light. Her long hair blazing in bright sparks was

flowing on her shoulders and her blue eyes were looking at Lucky with

hypnotizing intensity. Everything about her was sparkling, but her eyes had

something kind and infinite like immense energy of an entire universe -

something so absolute and captivating, that he forgot his words and

remained staring at her. He felt his eyes of a clear green sea filling with

brightness, just as sunlight would dance in the water, above moving waves.

Her sparkling presence was an aura that reached his soul instantly, as if

there would be no barriers or shields between them. He could sense her

energy in radiating brightness and it was thrilling warmth that made his

skin tingle.

She took a few steps directly towards him, slowly but steadily, smiling

attentively as if she was curious about his presence too. Lucky still held the

dream catcher in his hand. He felt that her apparition was somehow linked

to the magical spider web and the turquoise feathers.

She stopped in front of him and explained:

“I am the voice of the Central Conscience of another dimension”, she

spoke calmly and clearly. “You can call me C.C., just to make it simple.”

“Can I call you Spark? You"re so intensely bright…”

“Yes, you may call me as you wish. I am an undefined energy and I"m

speaking to you from another reality. It"s a universe you don"t know, but

your mind is connected to it through the dream catcher. I took this form so

that you can see me as a person, but I"m not this body. I am a lot more than

the light you can imagine flooding the galaxy...”

“Is this a dream?”

“It"s not a dream, even though it came to you as a dream - because that"s

the easiest way to communicate. It"s a message that you get because you"re

on the right frequency and you can hear me.”

“What is this place? Where am I?"

“You"re in the undefined zone where ships and planes get lost because

they go to another universe. And you"re in the place where our worlds

intersect.”

“Why did you tell me to go back? Go back where? And warn who about

what?”

She looked at him as if she was evaluating his power of understanding.

Then she said, with the same voice that seemed to come from everywhere

around, spreading intense energy and covering the storm:

“I need you to go back in time and tell the people on the ship about the

sinking. There are many souls on that ship and the turbulence in the energy

of our universe is going to be making ripples of negative vibes for too long

because of that catastrophe. You must warn them.”

Lucky stared at her amazed.

“What ship are you talking about?”

“You probably know: the Titanic.”

He almost dropped the dream catcher from his hand.

“But that ship sank long ago! And it was in the middle of the frozen

ocean! How am I supposed to get there? It"s history, it cannot be changed!”

“See, that"s the thing: that maybe it can. If you go back and warn them.”

He looked at her, thinking. He was so willing to believe her miraculous

apparition was speaking the truth, but he didn"t see how he could

accomplish changing such an event in history. She seemed to understand his

hesitation. She tried to simplify the vision of what he had to do:

“You must first go back to your beach house. And that"s where I"ll tell

you how to fix that disturbance in the higher dimensional universe. Because

of it, the positive energy of our invisible universe is out of balance and the

dimension I come from might disappear. It"s already shaking and I worry

that it might create a drain or a whirl that will extinguish the light we rely on.

We have to reduce the negative events in your world, because it"s too

burdened with them and it acts like a vacuum, voiding the light from other

dimensions.”

He realized it was a huge responsibility – to find a way to change an

event in the past and save an unknown invisible universe. It seemed too

much for a simple human.

“Why me?” he asked.

She smiled.

“You"ve got the dream catcher.”

*

After he woke up, Lucky knew he had to go to his summer beach house.

He took the dream catcher with him and went there the same day.

The beach house was small and it had a porch and a roof covered in

straws. Lucky had always liked that roof: it gave the house a wild aspect.

As he stood there on the porch in the sunlight, wearing only a pair of

shorts and watching the waves splashing on the shore, he felt the same

connection to the sea that he had always sensed. Even from the years when

he was a young boy he felt he belonged to the immensity of greenish waves

expanding to the horizon. He was so addicted to the sea and to the absolute

freedom of the open horizon that he felt the need to be on the shore as much

as possible, any moment of the day. Sometimes, he could almost hear the sea

calling him with its shuffling waves, as if it was alive with feelings, alluring

him to the water, asking him to remain around. He could spend hours just

watching it, glancing to the horizon and feeling the energy of the endless

waves.

It was noon and Spark hadn"t given him any sign. He felt he was

waiting in vain – yet somehow, he sensed that she would not abandon him.

As he was beginning to wonder if the vision of light had actually been just

an illusion; he thought about the dream catcher he had left by the window

inside the beach house. At that moment, he noticed a man walking on the

beach. The man got closer and passed by in front of the beach house. It was

an Indian man with long grey hair – one of those tribe wise men wearing

feathers and carrying magical amulets around their necks. The man looked

at him for a moment. He had long feathers clipped to the back of his head.

“You"re the one with the Dream Catcher, aren"t you?” he said.

Lucky did not expect anyone to know about his magical dream catcher.

“What do you mean?” he replied.

“You be careful with it, boy. You be careful with it.”

And the man continued to walk, distancing himself along the shore.

Lucky looked around, thinking about his entire life of miraculous

achievements and the recent apparition in his dream - and what he had

come there to accomplish. He felt uncertain that he could actually influence a

time that had already gone.

Suddenly, he noticed that there was another beach house very near, just

across a patch of sand and rocks, similar to his. And while he was

wondering why he hadn"t seen it before, the door opened and a girl came

out. It was a dark brown haired Indian girl, walking slowly in his direction.

She had a long scarf tied around her waist and a string of pearls strangely

shining around her head. Her forehead was adorned with a shiny symbol

placed between her eyes. “The third eye”, he thought, looking at the

intensely shiny silver sign on her forehead, right below the string of pearls.

When she came closer, her black eyes glimmered toward him with a smile.

“Good morning”, she said.

“Good morning. Are we neighbors?" he asked her.

She was walking with bare feet in the sand, and she stepped up on his

porch without hesitation, the moment she got nearer. He kept staring at her,

wondering where she had come from.

“Yes we"re neighbors” she replied casually, still smiling. “My name is

Phoenix. What"s yours?”

“I"m Lucky, that"s my name.”

“You"re Lucky?”

She laughed, amused.

“Why do you have a dog"s name?” she teased him.

“Why do you have a bird"s name?” he returned the question,

unflinching.

She shrugged, playfully.

“It"s a mythical bird.”

“And mine is a lucky dog.”

Her dark chocolate eyes stared for a while into his greenish sea-like

glance. She pondered; then she gave up trying to confront or defy him. „Is

she testing me?" he wondered, because it seemed that way to him. She

changed the direction of the conversation:

“So I guess your totem animal is the wolf?”

“And yours is the bird?”

She laughed.

“Why do you always answer with another question?”

He stared into her eyes, not changing his expression. His green stare

seemed a bit distant and unrevealing, like the mysterious sea spreading to

the horizon, whispering in waves.

“Are you looking for something?” he asked her.

She started playing with her colorful bracelet, fondling it round and

round.

“Have you seen my father?”

“Is he an Indian man with amulets around his neck and feathers on his

head?”

“Yes, that must be him.”

“Well, he just passed by. I saw him a while ago.”

Phoenix looked along the shore, but Lucky had the feeling she wasn"t

going to search for her Indian father and she wasn"t interested in finding

him anytime soon. She was only trying to make up a pretext to be there.

“Do you like my porch?” he asked her amused, because she was still

standing next to him, looking absently to the distance.

She didn"t respond right away, as if she was lost in thoughts. Then she

turned to glance at him inquiringly and seriously from under her long

eyelashes:

“Do you have the Dream Catcher?” she suddenly asked.

He was no longer surprised about the mention of the dream catcher. He

knew the object was magical and he expected anything was possible if it was

related to it. Maybe more people knew about it and wanted it for

themselves… He realized he had to keep it in sight. He looked back to the

window where the turquoise feathers were swinging with the breeze.

Phoenix was still waiting for his answer, almost frowning at him from

the dark depths of her unrevealing eyes. He grinned at her, as the sunlight

was blinding him from above, covering her contour in a confusing radiance:

“It"s interesting that not even half an hour has gone by and two people

already asked me about my dream catcher. Yes, I have one. What about it?”

“You be careful with it”, she said casually and turned around, leaving

towards her house.

He watched her go, taking step by step in the hot sand, until she went

through the door of the neighboring beach house. “The girl next door”, he

thought. He didn"t try to figure out why she and her father had mentioned

the dream catcher telling him to be careful about it. Did they know he had a

mission? Did they want to bargain with him? But it was his dream catcher.

And he was waiting for a sign from the voice of another universe. He was

ready to get to action.

The sign came that evening, after he fell asleep; he had been watching

the lighthouse across the bay blinking in distant rhythm above the dark

whispering waves. At night the sea would become even more powerful, the

waves splashing louder and shuffling their foam ashore with fierce

determination. He felt his eyes close with the image of the dream catcher still

by the window, a glimmering round shadow in the moonlight with the

spider web projected through the glass, across the starry sky. Immediately

after he slipped in a state of peaceful mindless sleep, Spark appeared in his

dream, as bright as a constellation. She was standing by his bed, glowing in

warm rays of light.

“Wake up, Lucky” she told him firmly.

Her voice filled the room and stirred his mind alert. But he was already

staring at her, leaning on his elbows and blinking repeatedly to adjust to the

overflowing light shining directly in his eyes.

“Hey C.C. I"m fully awake” he said. “Are you really here?”

“Yes, I"m really here”, she smiled. “Now listen: tomorrow is a full moon.

You must take the dream catcher and go to the shore when the moon is in

the middle of the sky. That"s when you will be able to get through the gates

of time and space. You will get to the ship – the dream catcher will take you

there – and you"ll warn the sailors to change direction so that the Titanic

won"t hit the iceberg as it did. If you can do that, it will change everything.”

“Will that save the balance of your universe?”

“It might. And it might improve yours too.”

And then Spark vanished. The room turned dark again. The moonlight

was passing through the dream catcher and throwing shadows on the floor.

Lucky realized he was indeed awake: and that meant he had actually seen

the Central Conscience of another world right next to him, without having to

dream about it. She was already interfering in his day by day reality.

*

At dawn he went swimming.

He knew he had to wait until the night would display a full moon in the

sky.

In the distance, above the horizon line, the sun was rising from the

water like a red eye. As it kept rising higher and burning a brighter orange,

it looked more like a beating heart. Suddenly, he saw a transparent image of

Spark"s smile and blazing stare, appearing over the sun, in the sky.

“Tonight” he heard her voice like a whisper above the waves.

“Yes, I know”, he answered in his mind.

And then he started swimming to the shore. He had the feeling that he

could end up in the undefined zone of lost ships and planes, if he spent more

time so far out at sea.

Coming out of the waves with water dripping on his skin and his wet

hair getting colder from the morning chill, his eyes discovered the Indian

girl Phoenix who seemed to have been waiting for him, crouched on a rock,

holding her knees and observing him from under her long eyelashes. She

seemed to have been on the shore longer than he was aware of.

“If you"ve come looking for the dream catcher, it"s not here”, he told her.

“I don"t have it with me right now”.

“I"m not looking for the dream catcher.”

“What are you looking for then?”

“Nothing in particular. I was just watching you. Actually, I"m waiting to

see the dolphins.”

“Dolphins?”

“Yes, there are dolphins swimming at dawn. They come out to play and

swim closer to the shore when the waves are peaceful.”

The sea was always more peaceful in the morning; its surface like a

mirror, silver, blue and pink, reflecting the red and gold sunrise, was

moving softly as if alive and asleep in drowsy dreams.

“I came to see the dolphins and I saw you instead.” Phoenix said. “Do

you need a towel?”

“Do you have one?”

“I don"t… not yet anyway. But I can get one from the house.”

“Well… thanks. I"m used to getting out of the water like this.”

And he shook his head, scattering drops of water around.

It was refreshing to feel the salty air of the sea after having been in the

water for an hour. It was as if he belonged to the sea even more.

“Is your name still Lucky?” he heard Phoenix ask him.

He couldn"t tell if she had said it playfully or seriously.

He found a spot on a rock and decided to sit there, watching the horizon.

“What are you doing here?” he asked her without looking too much in

her direction.

“I told you: I"m watching the dolphins.”

“But there are no dolphins.”

“There will be.”

They remained in silence for a while. Then Phoenix spoke again:

“You can"t stop that shipwreck, you know. It"s done. It"s over. You can"t

turn it around. You can"t make it take a different direction now because its

path is already carved in the past: it will just go as it did - no matter what

you do. Why focus on the past and not on the future?”

Lucky was again not very shocked that she had knowledge of things she

was not supposed to know.

“I"ll just have to try and see what happens”, he answered. “What else do

you know?”

“I know about the pier where ships and planes get lost.”

“What do you know about it?”

“It"s a miniature world in your mind...” she joked.

“It"s actually an open gate to another universe.”

“If you say so… But it"s the only thing you can do to save them.”

“What?”

“Send them there.”

He thought about it. Did she really know what she was saying?

He suddenly noticed two dolphins in the distance, jumping through the

waves in the reflections of sunrise.

“Look! They"re here!” he exclaimed.

Phoenix smiled.

“I told you.”

*

Night had enveloped the shore and the sea was a black mystery,

whispering in the dark with its relentless waves. Moonlight shone a pale

blue above the rocks and the blinking lighthouse in the distance kept

glimmering like a lost comet.

Lucky was waiting for the moon to reach the middle of the sky. He had

the dream catcher in his hand and before he could do anything or wonder

what he should have done, a few blue moonlight rays lit up the spider web

in a tunnel flash that linked the sky to the circle with turquoise feathers. The

next moment, he felt the sand sink under his feet and a spinning whirl

would sweep him off in speed; his feet were in the air for a few seconds –

then back on a solid surface.

He looked around. The view had changed: he was on the deck of a big

ship. He had been sent somewhere else, beyond space and time. He was on

the Titanic.

It had not hit the iceberg yet. Lucky started walking on the deck, looking

around feverishly: he had to think of something fast. He had to talk to

someone – tell them. Warn them. Convince them. Do something before it

would be too late.

The deck was halfway lit by the windows. There were a few people

walking around, but he could only see passengers, in outdated clothes. He

had seen many movies about the event, but being on the deck of the huge

ship was a bit intimidating. It was as real as it could be. He touched the