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I open my eyes to see Melissa hovering over my legs, her expression drawn and worried.
I sit up, rubbing a hand over my bed head and adjusting my sling.“Yeah, what’s up, Freckles?You guys sleep okay?”
“Define okay,” she says, her throat working as she swallows.“Chase is still asleep, so I guess he slept fine, but…” She exhales as she tugs at a lock of hair beside her neck, twirling it nervously around her fingers.“You’re going to think I’m insane, but I think we have to call the police.”
The last of the sleep fog vanishes in a rush of adrenaline.I throw off the covers and stand, tossing the blanket back on the couch.“Why?What’s wrong?Did you see something?Find something in the house?”
She shakes her head.“No, I had a dream.But it wasn’t a normal dream.It was very…clear.It felt so real, Aaron.I was talking to a little girl in a white dress, and she told me—”
“Her stepfather did it,” I wheeze, every hair on my body lifting until I feel like a human porcupine.
The color drains from Melissa’s face as she whispers, “Yes.Oh my God.”She sags onto the couch.“My knees just gave out.That’s never happened to me before.Not in my entire life.”
I sit beside her.“We had the same dream.How’s that possible?”
“Because it wasn’t a dream,” she says, inching closer, until our thighs are glued together.“It was real.She was communicating with us, asking for help through our dreams.”
I put my arm around her, hugging her to my side.“I’m going to be honest.I hate that.I hate it a lot.”
She shivers.“Me, too.So much.I feel terrible for her, but what am I going to say to the police?Hey, Mr.Officer Sir, I had a prophetic dream about a murdered kid I think might be buried under the apple tree by the sledding hill.Would you mind digging around back there for a bit and seeing what you find?Oh, and my friend had the same dream.Nothing crazy there.We are very sane and stable humans who should totally be trusted with the care of a small child.”
I sigh.“Yeah, we can’t tell them that.They’ll think we’re nuts.”
“Speaking of nuts, Nutty has a clean bill of health,” she says.“Starling texted me a few minutes ago.We can pick him up this afternoon.”
“Fabulous,” I say dryly.“A ghost and a perverted chipmunk.All this vacation needs is a bout of food poisoning to take it to the next level.”
“I would never give you food poisoning,” she murmurs, distractedly.“I can smell bad ingredients a mile away.Even when they don’t actually have a smell.It’s like a sixth sense or…” She sits up straighter, shifting to face me.“What if we blame it on Nutty?”
I frown.“We tell the police the chipmunk had a dream about a ghost girl?”
She rolls her eyes.“No, we tell them Nutty was digging around out there and acting weird, so we did a little digging ourselves and found bones.And he’s a ground squirrel, not a chipmunk.”
My tongue cramps at the back of my throat.“I don’t want to find bones.Does that make me less of a man?”
“No, and you won’t have to do the digging.I’ll do it,” she says.“You only have one arm.But I did see shovels in the garage last night.”
I shake my head.“No.I don’t like it.Not only is it creepy as hell, but the ground is also probably frozen solid under the snow.”
“Then I’d better get going.If I’m going to make any progress before I need to start breakfast.If Chase wakes up before I get back, give him strawberries for a snack and tell him I’ll be back to make scrambles in a little bit.”
“You aren’t going to work?”I ask as she stands.
She glances back at me.“No, I don’t have work today.It’s my last day off before we head into a run of baby showers.I forgot I didn’t have to go in until I looked at my schedule before bed.”
“You forgot,” I echo, pretty sure she’s lying.
“Yeah,” she says, avoiding eye contact.“I’ll be back.Send me lucky vibes.”
“Okay,” I say, though I’m not sure what constitutes “luck” in this case.Are we lucky if she finds something and we have confirmation that we were both visited by the ghost of a murdered child?Or are we lucky if her digging doesn’t bear fruit and there’s no explanation for our eerily similar dreams?“Be safe.And take your cell.Just in case you need to call for help.”
“I’ll be fine.”She shrugs into her coat and flashes a shaky smile.“See you in a little while.”
After she’s gone, I busy myself folding up my bedding, which takes forever with one arm, as does almost everything else in my new life.Then, I head into the kitchen to wash up the strawberries, so they’ll be ready when Chase wakes up.I make coffee, eat a banana, and am considering looking for some cartoons on the television to embrace my inner child, when Mel slams back in the door.
I look up from the kitchen island, where I’ve been scrolling through the morning’s headlines.“Hey.How’d it go?”
She leans back against the door, still breathing faster.Her face is as white as the ghost in my dreams.Finally, she nods, a quick, tight nod that makes my stomach drop.
