Page 6 of Time to Bounce

“I saw the video, baby.” He smoothed my hair out of my face. “I know what happened. When you jumped, they took her.”

I blinked. “She told me to jump.”

“I know,” he whispered, voice breaking. “I watched the video. I heard what she said.”

I looked down, my fingers playing with his shirt collar.

I was staring at the part in his shirt, comparing my tan skin to his white skin, and didn’t hear what he said next.

My eyes became focused on the red bloom of color just to the right of his shirt collar. The red started to spread, and soon it was taking over his entire shirt.

I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.

At least not at first.

My dad fell with me in his arms, and I banged my knees hard on the concrete.

When my dad fell, he landed beside my mom.

My mom had a red bloom forming on her forehead.

And all of a sudden everything started to make a sick sort of sense.

“Daddy!”

“I have you, Athena. I have you.”

I woke with a start.

The dream of my sister’s kidnapping, which had morphed again, was repetitive, but not consistent.

The ending, though, where my parents were shot?

That was real.

That always stayed consistent.

The therapists said that my changing dreams on how my sister was kidnapped was normal for a child so young.

According to my parents, the kidnapping did happen.

It just hadn’t gone down exactly the way I thought.

Gavrel’s face was soft when he reached for me, and I threw myself into his arms. “They’re d-d-dead.”

“They’re okay, sugar plum. I promise. They’re both still very much alive.”

“They were s-shot,” I disagreed.

“They were,” he agreed. “But they are okay now. They’re all better.”

I deflated in his arms.

“How was she taken?” I whispered.

I always asked him, and he always told me.

I tried to separate the dreams from reality, but sometimes it was so hard. I just needed a little reminder.

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