Dream a Little Dream Read Online Free PDF Page B

household chores and was ready to go to the beach, when Kudo knocked over one of her favorite plants. Clods of moist dirt spilled over onto the carpet. Nola’s face reddened.
    “Bad cat! Bad, bad, bad!” she yelled. The cat scooted under the sofa and cowered while Nola vacuumed up the mess. She loved that cat, but sometimes Kudo got on her last nerve. If John decided to come home and found the mess, he would throw Kudo out the window and probably slap Nola for it.
    She thought about her trip today. She wondered what had possessed her to go to the beach anyway. She never liked to go alone, so she never went anywhere. She had no friends. Except for Lori. Nola had known her for three years. She was the kind of person one wouldn’t want to associate with on the first meeting, but she did have her points. Nola had not been to see her in several weeks. Oh, well; it was not as if Lori would miss her. No one would.
    Nola’s mother lived in the apartment building down the block from hers, but she could never get her mother to do anything with her. Nola just turned into a blob of flesh after doing the chores.
    Most often she would go right to sleep. She loved to sleep because sleep brought dreams. That was another reason she wished to die. She could sleep and never wake up. She could live in her dreams forever, except that as far as she knew, dead people didn’t dream. Everyonehad strange dreams but Nola knew that hers were really unusual.
    Her dreams were different each night, but she dreamed of Spirit and Mich every time she closed her eyes. Mich was her true love. He would slay demons for her and she would make him happy, in her fashion, in return.
    Every now and then Mich would be astride a nightmare that looked just like Spirit in every way except color. This other stallion was purest white, and instead of green, its eyes were like two huge silver ball bearings. When they were side by side, they looked like light and shadow.
    Kudo crawled from under the sofa and didn’t even glance at Nola. She trotted over to the window and jumped into the sill. Nola walked over and patted her.
    “Well, Kudo, I hope for your sake that our apartment isn’t torn up when I get home. I’m going to the beach now.” She paused, then added, “Come to think of it, I hope I don’t get torn up when I get home. Well, John’s never come home on his own before, so why would he now?” She scratched Kudo between the ears and Kudo turned her head, hissed and bit at her.
    Nola knew that Kudo was not by any stretch an affectionate cat, but Kudo would never intentionally hurt her. She had come to accept Kudo’s strange way of acknowledging her love. A nibble and scratch meant “I love you” and a hiss meant “please pet me.”
    At one-thirty Nola was ready, and left for the bus station. It was a long walk and the trip was costing her, but she wanted so much to go. Even alone.
    Once on the bus, she sat and stared morosely out the window, watching the trees and houses go by. She tried to convince herself that she would have the best time ever. She would shop, swim, relax and eat, but most of all, sleep and have fun.
    Nola’s mind’s eye did a double take. This is fun? she thought.What was she doing? It would be fun if she was with two or three friends, but she wasn’t.
    Then she got that funny feeling again, thanks to Esprit, that everything would be great. Esprit would want her to go. He ‘d say that everything would be great.
    The first thing Nola did after the four-hour bus ride was check into a hotel and eat. After dinner, she figured she ‘d have just enough time for a swim and then she could watch the sunset. She grabbed her beach bag and sketch pad and headed off to the beach.
    Tina woke from a dream of horror. She was shivering and sweating simultaneously. Probably she needed another fix. But the dream seemed like something else.
    She tried to focus on it, but it was already fading. All she caught was something about a monstrous worm. A