11 Dream share
She
came up, gasping and spluttering, and then spluttered more with shock to find
herself in the bath at home. Looking around in astonishment, there was no
chamber, no pool, no Luke. But it had been so real. She shook her head several
times and pinched herself. Getting out of the bath, she shrugged off the
unwieldy heavy clothing and wrapped herself in a big, multicoloured beach towel
while sitting on the edge of the tub to pull off her trainers and socks,
chucking them over by the towel rail, where she'd left the clothes.
Her mother came in. 'You've been a long
time, young lady.' She picked up Elisha's clothes from the towel rail, then
made a strange face and dropped them on the floor. 'What on earth have you been
doing, Elisha? These are soaking wet!'
Elisha looked over at her plimsoles,
which were making a puddle on the patterned linoleum. 'And your shoes too! Did
you get into the bath before getting undressed? Honestly, what a mess. Wring
everything out and bring it down to the kitchen. All I need is another trip to
the launderette! And clear this place up or there'll be hell to pay, you little
madam.' Her mother stormed furiously out. She sometimes called Elisha 'young
lady' as a joke but used 'little madam' when she was really in trouble.
Elisha sighed and put her head back
against the wall. She didn't know any more what was real and what was not and
was starting to wish she'd never set eyes on the magic wishing well.
A few
minutes later, while she was still pondering on the peculiar dream episode, her
mum shouted up the stairs: 'Elisha!'
She finished drying herself, and pulled
her mint-green towelling robe round her as she opened the bathroom door.
'Yes, Mum?'
There's someone here to see you. Come
down now and you can mop the bathroom later.'
Feeling vaguely apprehensive, she went
down rather hesitantly, in her Mum's pink flip-flops from under the basin.
It was Luke, looking at her a bit oddly
before smiling. 'Did you wake up in the bath too?'
She nodded and led him into the lounge,
struggling a bit to control the oversize flip-flops, plonking herself down on
the sofa. His hair was wet, not as thick yet as it had been in ... her dream,
whatever it had been. And his eyes were bright and excited.
'Did we have the same dream?' she
wondered aloud.
'Was it a dream though?' he queried.
These musings were interrupted by
Elisha's mother, who brought in two glasses of milk and a plate of Bourbon
biscuits. 'I'm glad to see you two are friends again,' she said, as she went
back into the hall.
'It must have been a dream,' Elisha
spoke adamantly to convince herself. ‘I've been having very weird dreams
lately. Plus, I can't swim in real life.'
'You still haven't learnt to swim? So
why did you come after me? You could have drowned.’ Luke took a bite of biscuit
while she nibbled round the edges of one before sucking out some of the
filling. She didn't answer so he continued: ‘You must have pulled me into one
of your dreams. I mean, I've never seen a well like that. In fact, I don't
think I've ever seen a well at all. That means it can't be coming from my
subconscious.'
'From your what?' She dunked the
chocolate biscuit into her milk, then bit off the wet bit.
'That's how my Dad explains dreams. He
says it's like your mind's an adding machine storing information all day long
and at night it sorts it all out and totals it up properly. While it's doing
that, all these things become your dreams.'
'Oh. Then I think you'd better come up
to my bedroom a minute.'
His eyes widened; he was intrigued.
Elisha noticed that they'd lost that dull hopelessness she'd seen in them on
the last day of school. In fact, Luke no longer looked resigned and depressed.
He was energised, enthusiastic, more like he used to be before, when they were
younger and he was fun to play with.
Elisha's mother was reading a paper in
the kitchen when she heard them thunder up the stairs.
The well was on the desk where she'd left
it, looking innocent and stationary.
'Wow,' Luke breathed. 'It's like a
miniature version of the one in my dream.'
'Yeah.' She sat down and watched him
touch it carefully, reverently, marvelling at the detail, the colour and its
similarity to the one he'd climbed into.
'Something creepy's happening, isn't
it?' He looked across at her, eyebrows raised.
'Yes. It's been happening for a while.
It's a magic well, you see, that my Aunt Jessie gave me.' She thought the fact
that Luke had shared her dream must mean she could tell him the secret.
'Whoah.' He was silent a minute or two,
taking this in, dismissing disbelief. 'So what can it do?'
'It might sound stupid but ... it grants
wishes.'
'Hold on, what's this?' He'd found the
gold 5p. The well had let him find it. Elisha shrugged her shoulders as if to
say, 'You see.' She no longer felt uneasy being with Luke. Since she'd gone
into the pool after him, she felt different. She even found his presence
reassuring.
'Will it ...’ he stopped to gulp in some
air, suddenly breathless with the hope in his chest. ‘Can it ... make me well?'
His voice faltered and his gaze transferred from the well to her face, his eyes
large and solemn.
'I already wished that.' But she felt a
bit bad that it had taken her so long to think of doing so.
He sat down next to her. ‘You have? And
there I was thinking you were a fairweather friend. And you came into the pool
after me ... .' He became lost for words.
'I am a fairweather friend.' She
sighed, feeling the weight of this truth, shouldering the guilt for abandoning
him.
'I knew you'd come though.'
'How did you know? I didn't even know I
would.'
'Do you two want this milk and stuff?'
called her Mum up the stairs.
They looked at each other briefly, then
decided as one and charged down the stairs together.
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