Crystalline Dreams

CHAPTER 1

D avid thought to himself as he began to stir from his sleep, ‘Wow, that was some dream…or was it?? Then came the realization that he was in the real world. ‘Ugh…time to wake up.’ It was a warm September morning when David Thompson finally awoke from another restless night of sleep. He was dreaming of Cynthia…again…and his dreams were becoming more real. Unfortunately, he thought, he had to live his life in the here and now, not the past.

David and his daughter, Zoey, had faced some difficult days in the past three years since Cynthia’s disappearance, and he believed in his heart that he had moved past all of the grieving and allowed himself to get on with his life. But, there she was…again…in another dream, very real and moving her mouth…even though he could not hear what she was saying. In this dream from last night, he tried to reach his hand to her, but she was just out of his reach. In the moments right before he awoke he was aware enough to be thinking to himself, ‘ It’s so hard just seeing her, even here in a dream. I miss her still…’

David’s mind was still a little foggy as he arose from his bed; he sat up, then rested himself for a moment on the edge of his bed, just thinking about her. Why was she haunting his dreams? He didn’t have enough time to dwell on that now. David was trying to get himself motivated enough to get moving. In the morning fog, David also sensed that there was something else that just seemed unusual about this morning. Something just felt off about today. And the vivid dream that he just had about his Cynthia was not helping to relieve his anxiety.

‘Coffee…’, David muttered to himself. He hoped that some coffee would help to calm his nerves. What David was completely unaware of what was going to happen as the day would progress…and not even coffee could help that. But, at this point, it hoped that it would motivate him to get going.

David tried to relive the previous night – he wondered if something that happened last night could have made him think that today was going to be a weird day. He and ten-year old Zoey, his beautiful, auburn-haired daughter, had a normal Wednesday night. Zoey came home and finished her homework rather quickly – it was math and science – she was a good student in those subjects. It also helped that her fifth grade teacher was willing to help her if she should get stuck on a problem.

She got her homework done quickly and then helped David make spaghetti for dinner. She loved helping her daddy…and Wednesday night was spaghetti night. When dinner was done and the dishes were washed, they decided to watch a movie. It was Zoey’s turn to choose the movie, so she chose James and the Giant Peach. When the movie was over, they went to bed.

Before he went to start the coffee brewing, he thought to himself, ‘Well, the spaghetti wasn’t spicy, but maybe the strange feeling I am having is heartburn.’ He went to the medicine cabinet, took an antacid, chewed it up and swallowed it. It really did not help, because what he would find out was that the burning sensation was due to the anxiety that something was different about this particular morning. When he realized that the antacid wasn’t working, he simply tried to just ignore it completely; he thought to himself, ‘Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

So, he went to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee, he went back to his bedroom, took a shower, put on clean clothes, and then went to wake up Zoey and get his breakfast. She liked to take as much time as possible to get out of bed in the morning. Zoey was like her mom in that respect. When David went in to wake her, he immediately noticed that she wasn’t in her bed.

Under ordinary circumstances, David wouldn’t panic. This morning was unusual because David was worried that she disappeared like her mother . He thought to himself, ‘Ok, David…don’t panic. This day is already stressful enough. Zoey is not in her room…where could she be this morning?’ Maybe she is in the house somewhere - so he called out for her.

‘Zoey…’ No response. It wasn’t like her to not answer right away.

ZOEY… Still no response. ‘Where is that girl?’, David thought to himself.

ZOEY! - He yelled in desperation.

What, Daddy…I’m right here! Zoey replied from behind her closet door. She was a little frightened at her father’s tone of voice. She had no clue why her dad seemed so mad at her this morning. David apologized. "I’m sorry, Zo…I did not mean to bite your head off. I had another dream about mom and it has me all worked up this morning.’ Zoey explained, ‘That’s okay, Daddy. It scared me a little bit. I am sorry I didn’t answer you right away, but I was trying to find a nice outfit to wear and I was looking in my closet. I didn’t hear you.’

David felt horrible for yelling at Zoey. ‘Please forgive me for shouting, honey…I am just having a strange morning. When I called for you, and you didn’t answer right away, I just panicked. Now that I know that you are here and getting ready, we can get on with our day, huh? I can already tell that this is going to be one of those days.’‘ I hope that it will improve after some breakfast.’

While Zoey was finishing with her morning routine, David fixed himself some toast with butter and jam to go with his morning coffee - black with three sugars; Zoey had cereal with milk. After they finished their breakfast, they cleared the table, put the dishes in the dishwasher, and just like every other day, at 7:30, they were ready to go. ‘Just to be safe, we should take our jackets with us…it could cool down today’, David said. Zoey answered, ‘Dad, you sound just like Mom.’ ‘Thank you, Zoey – I will take that as a compliment’, David replied with a smile.

Amazingly, they were a little ahead of schedule today. They went out to the garage and got in the Range Rover parked there. When he started the car, the strange feeling in the pit of David’s stomach about the day was made worse. It became apparent as they were leaving the house. David, by nature of his job, was an observant person. That is what made him good at what he did. David raised the garage door. He reminded Zoey to fasten her seat belt. He put the car in ‘Reverse’ and backed out of the driveway. As David put the car in ‘Drive’, both of them soon realized that the traffic in the area was going to be really light today.

Highland Park, Texas (a suburb of Dallas) on any other Thursday, would see the Thompsons maneuvering through traffic in their subdivision. David and Zoey both realized most of the neighbor’s cars were still parked in their driveways. ‘That’s odd…’, David muttered to himself. But for now, they put those thoughts aside as they kept driving toward their first destination: Zoey’s school.

David thought to himself that maybe the traffic would pick up as they got closer to her school. When he turned on the radio to see if there were unusual traffic patterns, the announcer just mentioned when it got to the traffic portion of the morning show that the traffic was unusually light. He didn’t announce anything unusual on the news portion of the show. When one of the other radio announcers started rambling about the Cowboys preseason, David turned the radio off. ‘I don’t really care about sports right now…’

When David dropped off Zoey at McAuliffe Elementary School, he noticed that there were fewer cars than usual in the parent drop-off as well as the parking lot. David asked, ‘Is today a late start day, Zo?’ Zoey replied, ‘No, Dad; that is next Thursday.’ David paused for a few seconds and thought about just taking her with him. He still could not get rid of the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach about what was going on. ‘Are you going to be all right, honey?’, David asked in a concerned tone. Calmly, Zoey responded, ‘Yes, Dad, stop worrying…I will see you after school.’ and she shut the door without a care in the world. But Zoey did not have the same sense of anxiousness that her father had about the morning. Ten year olds don’t worry about the oddities of life the way adults do.

David put the car back in drive and headed for the office. David noticed that Zoey had a spring in her step as she headed in the school. He was not as excited about the day; and given the morning that he was having, he still had that sense of worry that was growing stronger every moment he got closer to the office. Still, David headed off to work – his to-do list wasn’t going to just stop. ‘It’s going to be fine’, David tried to convince himself as he drove towards the city. He turned the radio back on for a moment, but the announcers were still chatting about the Cowboys – so David turned the radio right back off. ‘How can we think of football at a time like this?’ David muttered to himself.

As he entered the city and was coming near the office, he still couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that something was very wrong in the world – or at least in Dallas. It appeared to David that there were almost no homeless people wandering around; many times in a daily commute, details like that often go unnoticed…but David noticed. There were usually a few dozen homeless people that didn’t stay in the shelters – but there were almost no homeless wandering the streets near the office.

As he neared the parking garage, he decided that maybe work could help him take his mind off of his uneasiness. He wanted to wrap his mind around the events of the morning so far. Other than Zoey, work was all he really had to rely on to keep his sanity. He hoped that he was just simply being paranoid about the morning. The dream that he had was just SO REAL. He talked to Cynthia in his dream like she was still here with him. But he knew that she disappeared three years ago…

David drove into the parking garage, parked in his parking spot, turned off the car, but didn’t immediately get out. He just sat and reflected for a few moments; his thoughts led him back to Cynthia. He also was contemplating the events that had unfolded so far in his workday. It all seemed so different than life had been three years ago…when Cynthia was still here and life seemed simpler. ‘God, I miss her…’

CHAPTER 2

O n any typical morning, David Thompson was very laid-back. Many of the Thompson family’s friends knew the circumstances that had affected he and Zoey in the past three years. It was a wonder that they had any sanity left and that they had found peace in their lives. It had been just the two of them since Cynthia’s disappearance. Given the mystery surrounding her disappearance, it was amazing how well David and Zoey were adjusting.

Cynthia Morgan was a beautiful woman – in every sense of the word. She was petite, had beautiful auburn hair and an infectious smile. It seemed everyone loved her, even those whom had just met her. She had a calming personality - people who had an angry or mean attitude were settled down. Their attitude seemed to improve when she spent time talking to and learning more about them. She was the type of person that knew no stranger – she was very loving and caring for others.

David was beginning to see the same type of behavior in his little girl. Even at 10 years old, David noticed Zoey was