Breene, K F - Growing Pains 01 Read Online Free PDF

trying to get
me to run. But the undertow was sucking us back. It was—I was terrified. And
then—I remember this very clearly—you turned to me, grabbed me by the arms, and
said, ‘We will be overtaken. When I say, hold your breath, and hope we can
breathe underwater this time.’ That’s when I woke up.”
    Krista stared at him in mute
horror.
    “You’ve had those wave dreams
before, haven’t you?” Ben asked soberly.
    “I think you really are
clairvoyant, Ben. Holy hell.”
    “But you’ve had those wave dreams?”
    She nodded. “Lately, as a matter of
fact. I don’t usually go under anymore. They started after I found out what Jim
really was. What I’d got myself into.”
    Ben’s brow furrowed. “Jim?”
    Oh, yeah. She hadn’t told Ben why
she’d left Seattle . The real
reason. She’d always just said she needed a change of venue, never hinting that
there was a reason behind it.
    And then she was purging.
    She told Ben about her job, and
that first week. Then her mug. Also about what happened the last time she lost
a lucky mug. Then, because she had opened the vault, and it was already on the
table, and maybe, too, because Ben was hanging on her every word as if she was
giving directions to a pile of gold, she just went ahead and told him the broad
strokes about why she left Seattle .
Miraculously, she didn’t cry once.
    When she was done, Ben was nodding
with a furrowed brow. “That makes sense. What about the ocean part, though?
Where does that fit in?”
    “I told you—the waves started with
Jim.”
    “No, not the waves. The blues. The
deep current under everything. The waves were strong emotion. That makes sense.
But it wasn’t a past…situation. It was present. This was all very present. Very
now. There was ocean.” He was looking at her as if he wanted to unhinge her
head and have a look instead.
    “Ben, you are under the impression
this relates to me simply because I was in it.”
    He shook his head as he crossed his
arms across his chest. The red on the brush was drying, but still managed to
smear his coveralls. “Oh no, Krista, not only that. I am quite perceptive with
emotional nuances. I am like a woman in that respect. I draw off it for my art.
I hone in on it, you might say. You’ve been … turbulent lately. I’ve paid more
attention than normal. I apologize, but it is great art.”
    “That, umm, seems like a violation
of privacy? Maybe? Pirating emotion, perhaps?”
    “You never said, how was your day?”
    “It was bad.”
    “Oh yes, that’s right. You did say.
I’m afraid I just botched that again. I’m sorry.”
    Krista shook her head and heaved
herself out of the chair. She approached the canvas, warning Ben with a finger
that terrible things would happen if he hugged her with paint all over him.
They turned toward it together.
    It was a large rectangle
half-covered in every shade of red that could be created. The strokes were
broad and bold. Thick layers coated, piling on top of each other. Yellow and
orange—what Ben had called hope—were under that, creating a background layer.
It looked like a kid had found a bunch of finger paints and went wild.
    “And that dream, with the waves and
beach and stuff, is what you are drawing?”
    Ben nodded, looking at the canvas
with a crease between his eyebrows. “Painting, yes.”
    “Huh.”
    “I am not quite getting the emotion
of it. I’m missing a very important piece. Your background helps—I’ll
incorporate that—but I’m still missing something.”
    She didn’t feel like asking how he
planned to incorporate anything with the expectation that people would know
what it was, so she said, “Hmm.”
    “Ocean. Why ocean?” Ben asked himself
thoughtfully, turning to gaze at her in thought.
    “Well…we are right next to it.
Maybe because you hear it?”
    “I thought of that, but no. That’s
not it.”
    “I run by it? I like it?”
    Ben turned back to his easel. “I
don’t think that’s it. There is