Page 5 of Chasing Dreams
“I’ll be seventy-six next month.”
It was hard to believe the lean, active doctor she’d worked with at the institute was that old. “Wow.”
“And in all those years I’ve known only a few people with an ability equal to yours.”
She didn’t reply. In the past, whenever she’d questioned him about his other patients, he’d regretted that he couldn’t share those things with her. His work was confidential. She understood, and she appreciated his integrity. That meant he wouldn’t share things about her, either.
“We’re at a stalemate here, Shaine.”
She knew it, too, obviously having been a pretty disappointing subject. She’d bombed on the ESP tests, couldn’t move objects for their psychokinesis testing and had no out-of-body experiences to report. Now that she wasn’t willing to put herself through any more analysis, he’d run out of help for her.
“I worked with someone years ago,” he said.
Her interest sparked, and she gripped the phone a little tighter.
“In the nineties, he helped the police solve crimes in Delaware and Pennsylvania and farther west.”
Shaine’s heartbeat increased with a new hope. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“He has an extraordinary ability,” Tom said. “I worked with him for years, and learned something new at every turn.”
“He let you poke him and prod him and pick his brain.”
Tom’s silence affirmed her words.
“Did he do well on the ESP tests?”
“Not outstanding.”
“Better than me.”
“Yes.”
“Could I learn from him?”
“I think so.”
“Is he still alive?” she asked, imagining him to be elderly by now.
“As far as I know.”
Excitement rose in her chest. She sat up in her bed. At last! At last someone to help her find Jack. Tom wouldn’t have brought it up if he didn’t think this man could teach her how to use the dreams. “Will you help me find him?”
“I hope he’ll forgive me. But I’ll help.”
* *
This was the craziest thing she’d ever done.
Shaine handed the flannel-jacketed college student the fifty dollars they’d agreed on and watched him drive back down the rough road to Gunnison, Colorado, leaving her in the midst of her pile of bags, assorted boxes of food and supplies, a tent, a cooler and a Coleman stove.
Having found someone to help Maya for a week or two, she’d spent every available dime on camping equipment and used her credit card for the plane ticket. There was no turning back now.
This old man she’d come to find was the answer to her dilemma. He would know how to help her. He would understand the torment she was going through and help her use this horrible wonderful gift to find Jack.
There was no other way. She wouldn’t consider anything different.
Shaine scanned the thick growth of trees and shrubs the boy had called Bentley Ridge, and observed the smoke rising against the crisp blue sky.
