(1989) Dreamer Read Online Free PDF

again.
    She nodded. ‘Yes – I—’
    He frowned, then struggled with the floppy arm of his shirt, and she heard the pop as the cufflink pierced the starch. Gold links with his initials on one side and his family crest on the other. Her wedding present to him. They’d come in a small wine-coloured box, and cost £216. Odd, the details you could remember. She stared at the reclining nude on the wall, at her face in the mirror above the bed, at the light streaming in from the bathroom door.
    ‘A dream,’ she said. ‘I was having a dream.’
    ‘You were making a horrible sound, really horrible.’ He turned away toward the wall mirror, and knotted his tie. As he pulled it tight, she felt something pull tight around her own throat. Dread seeped through her, hung around her, filled the room. The black hood with the slits came out of the door at her and the black leather glove clamped over her mouth. She shivered.
    Richard struggled into his trousers, disentangled his red braces and pulled on his silver armbands. She had loved to watch him dress when they had first started sleeping together. He was fastidious about his clothes. Shirts with double cuffs; trousers with buttons for braces. Proper trousers, he called them. She wanted tohold him suddenly, to hug him, feel him, to make sure he was real, still there; that her world was intact.
    And then the revulsion as she remembered and she shrank back in the bed away from him, and shook with a sudden spasm of – fear?
    ‘What were you dreaming about?’
    ‘It – I – nothing. Just a nightmare.’
    You’re afraid to tell it, she thought.
    Afraid that if you tell it—
    ‘Must dash.’ He leaned down to kiss her, and she smelled the coconut shampoo in his damp hair, his sweet Paco Rabanne aftershave and the strong trace of last night’s garlic through the minty toothpaste on his breath. She felt a soft wet kiss on her cheek.
    ‘Busy day?’ she said, wanting him to stay just a moment longer.
    ‘Japan. I reckon Tokyo’s about to start going bonkers.’
    ‘Don’t be late. It would be nice if you could help me get things ready tonight.’
    ‘Oh Christ, yah. Our dinner party.’
    ‘It’s for your clients, Richard.’
    ‘I’ll be back in good time.’
    The front door opened, then slammed shut. She dosed her eyes but opened them again, afraid of going back to sleep. She looked at the clock again. 0509. In a quarter of an hour he would be at his desk, chatting to Tokyo. Dealing. The Nikkei Dow. Gambling on equities, warrants, options, futures, currencies. So many variables. So many imponderables. He’d got angry with her once when she told him his job was like being a croupier in a high-tech casino.
    The door opened and Nicky came padding sleepily in.
    ‘Hallo, Tiger. You’re up early.’
    ‘I can’t sleep.’
    She put her hand out and tousled his hair. Soft, real. He shied away just a fraction, then put his head under her hand again for more.
    ‘Give Mummy a kiss.’
    Damp. It felt like a miniature version of Richard’s. ‘Why can’t you sleep, Tiger?’
    ‘I had a nightmare.’
    ‘What was it about?’
    ‘It was about a horrible man. A monster.’
    She sat up and hugged him. ‘That’s because I told you a story about one, isn’t it?’
    He nodded solemnly. He was a serious child sometimes. Always thinking things through.
    ‘He ate me.’
    She stared at the forlorn expression on his face. ‘I bet you tasted good.’
    He stamped his foot on the carpet. ‘Don’t. That’s not funny.’
    ‘Mummy’s got to get ready. Want to sleep in our bed?’
    ‘No.’ He wandered off, shuffling his slippers across the floor. As he went, she saw the aircraft sliding silently into the solid wall of the mountain. The tail section cartwheeling down. The luggage spewing out. The boom, and the ball of flame. She slipped unsteadily out of bed and walked to the bathroom, shivering, from the images, from the chill air, from the dark cloud of foreboding that hung over