“Daddy! Mommy! C’mon. Let’s go to the beach!” Rae dragged out the last word as if that would bring them along.

“Okay! We’ll go to the beach!” Max imitated Rae’s tone and volume. In a softer tone, he said to Kellen, “Dibs on putting sunscreen on your…shoulders.”

Kellen got goose bumps that lasted until she got into bed that night…and beyond.

11

“Mommy.”

The whisper at midnight, right above Kellen’s face, brought her out of a dead sleep and into wide-eyed terror. She jumped so hard she snapped her mouth closed and made her teeth ring. When she processed the voice and her role, she calmed herself and whispered, “Rae, what’s wrong?”

“Mommy, I had a nightmare.”

Kellen had been afraid of this; too much change and excitement, and a sudden separation from her beloved grandmother, and Rae’s subconscious was rolling out the nightmares. “I know, sweetheart. Hang on.” She rolled over and pushed gently at the inert form beside her. “Max, move over.”

Some deep-voiced mumbling occurred while Max crawled to his edge of the mattress.

Kellen had worn him out. Poor guy. Thank God she’d managed to put on a nightgown, bully him into some night shorts, and unlock the door before she fell into a beach-exhausted, sex-saturated sleep.

Kellen lifted the covers.

Rae scooted in. The child was shivering, clutching her tattered blankie and stuffed llama, in the grips of some shadowy dread.

Kellen pulled her close, trying to warm her.

Rae whispered, “Can Luna come up, too?” Which the dog wasn’t supposed to do, not on the family bed. Max didn’t approve.

But… “Sure.” Why not? What was a queen-size bed for, but to accommodate parents, child and animals, stuffed and real? Kellen patted the bottom of the bed.

Luna leaped up and stretched out on their feet.

Not exactly what Kellen had planned, but bonus points to the dog for bringing Rae through the shadowy corridor and into their bedroom. “Did the nightlight in your room help?”

“No. That’s why I saw the lady!”

“What lady?”

“An old lady with silver hair. I dreamed someone was standing over me—”

“I know that feeling.”

“—and I was scared. But I remembered what you said about facing my nightmares and I opened my eyes to look at her. She was supposed to disappear, and she was still there! She put her finger to her lips for me to be quiet, then she touched my forehead, then she went into the wall and vanished!”

“She touched your forehead? Like how?”

“Like you do when you kiss me goodnight.”

“So it was a nice touch.”

“Yes. But she was real.” Rae curled into a tighter ball, still shivering.

“That sounds like a pretty good dream to me.”

“She disappeared into the wall.”

“That’s kind of spooky,” Kellen acknowledged. “What did Luna do?”

“Nothing.”

“She didn’t bark? She didn’t growl?”