Protector - Laurel Dewey [208]
“Well,” Jane eventually said, “here we are.”
Emily stared straight ahead, almost afraid to look at the house. “Can’t we drive around some more? It’s not eight o’clock yet.”
“You’ll feel the same way in fifteen minutes. Why stretch it out?”
Emily looked down at the floor mat. “How come I can’t live with you?”
“Emily, you know why—”
“No, I don’t!” Emily replied, somewhat defiantly.
“There’s a lot of reasons. The top one being I’m not a blood relative.”
“Blood?”
“People you’re related to by blood ties. Like your aunt and uncle.”
Emily turned and eyed the long driveway and unpretentious house. A look of scorn came over her. “I only see them once or twice a year. I’ve slept in that house three times in my entire life. I’ve spent more time with you in the last month and a half than I’ve spent with them in my whole life. They don’t know how I like my eggs cooked. They don’t know what music I like. They don’t know my favorite candy. They don’t know anything about me.” Emily started to softly cry.
“When we first met, I didn’t know anything about you.”
Emily turned and looked Jane in the eye. “Yes, you did.” It felt like a loaded reply to Jane. “You knew everything about me. You knew what I was thinking. And what I felt inside.” Emily knew it was time to finally say it. “You knew me before you knew me.”
Jane was stunned. She felt her mouth go dry. “What are you talking about?”
Emily stared out the front window. She’d practiced this in her head many times but she still wasn’t sure how it would sound. “When I was in my bedroom closet . . . before I remembered what happened to my mom and dad . . . I fell asleep. At least, I think I fell asleep. I had a dream . . . even though it didn’t feel like a dream.” Jane felt the hair on her arms tingle. “I saw you.” Emily’s breathing became more rapid. “You were standing across from me on this . . . hot . . . metal . . . round thing. I didn’t know what it was then. But the light was blinding. And I was scared because you were pointing a gun toward me. And I could feel . . . his arm around my neck and I could smell the heat off the metal. I looked down . . . and I saw the face of a wolf staring back at me.” The fear of that moment gripped Emily. “And then I looked back up at you and I . . . I heard your voice in your head and it was saying that you didn’t think you could save me. But I knew you could! I knew you were the only one who could do it.” Tears welled in Emily’s eyes as she turned to Jane. “It wasn’t a dream because it came true.” Jane’s heart raced. She kept telling herself that this couldn’t be happening—that it was too bizarre. Emily reached out to Jane. “When I saw you in the stairwell that day, I couldn’t believe it. You were in my dream and now you are real. I’d found you. Just like you found me, but you didn’t know it yet.” She turned to the house. “They’ll never know me like that. They’ll never feel what I feel or think what I think. They’ll never know what I’ve seen. You’re the only person in the whole world who will ever really know me.”
Jane swallowed hard and tried to get hold of herself. “There’s no way you could live with me. I don’t know what my future holds. But whatever I decide to do, there’s always going to be a lot of grit in my life. That’s no environment for a kid to grow up in. Anyway, I’m nobody’s mother.”
“You were mine for awhile and you were good at it!”
Jane looked outside the window, desperately trying not to lose it. “The last six weeks were like a controlled game. Living the real, day-to-day with me is completely different.”
“Is what we had been broken?