Chapter 68 Chapter Notes
Bella and Edward invite Charlie and Maya to look at the new house. For the first time, Charlie hears about Edward's mind-reading gift, and gets the whole story of how he became a vampire, and why his family have chosen not to hunt humans.
The chapter title belongs to Gary Wright
Chapter 68 Dream Weaver December 3rd
I call Jacob's house to make sure he's home, and tell him that Bella and I will be up in about an hour for a quick visit. He's elated and says he'll see us soon. Bella dresses in muted tones for the occasion. I don't comment. She drives the thing onto the reservation while I follow in her Volvo, and she takes the drive slow and careful. Really, I would have been happy to keep it, because she loves it so much, but I understand her reasoning. Vehicles are meant to be driven, not admired. In her new life, there's really no room or necessity for such an item. Not anymore.
Since she's invited Maya and Charlie to look at the refurbished house, it's got to be a quick visit. When Bella pulls up in front of Jacob's house, he rushes out to greet her. In his mind, I see the interplay that had occurred between them after I'd left. He opens her door, reaches in, and lifts her to the ground. When he sees her eyes, shining with unshed tears, he's immediately concerned, releases her quickly and steps back.
"Bella! What's wrong?" She dashes the tears away with the back of her hand. I don't get out of the Volvo. I just wait for this to play out. She swallows thickly and hands him the single key, then closes his hand around it.
He searches her face, then darts a questioning look to me, sitting in her car. "It's not messing up, is it." Not a question.
"No, Jake. It's running fine. I just… I have a new car, and I can't bear to watch it rust slowly to the curb. You take it back. I'll be happy if I can picture it hauling a bunch of seven-foot Wolf boys around town. Call Edward and we'll do whatever paperwork necessary this week to transfer the title."
He gives her a chaste hug and she says, "My dad bought this for me so I would feel at home here, and it's been a cherished friend. Thanks for fixing it up." Jacob glances at me and I give him a nod of thanks as well. He watches as we drive away.
Bella doesn't look back.
The ride homeis a quiet affair. Bella doesn't break down into tears but I see that giving her truck away was more than just passing along a vehicle that was no longer necessary. It was a symbolic act of turning away from that part of her life. I guess that she's ready to move on. By the time I pull into the drive, she's smiling, chatting about the thing being useful once more, happy that someone will be paying attention to it.
It almost sounds as if she thinks it's alive.
When I hear Maya's car pull up an hour later, I walk out and help Charlie up the steps. He doesn't react to my ice-cold skin anymore, and I don't try to hide it from him. It's all out in the open now, like it or not.
He stops at the birchwood entry door and shakes his head in wonder. It probably cost a month of his wages. He and Maya take in the newly painted porch, red doormat and new shutters on the windows.
Bella stands nervously in the kitchen doorway, then hastens to embrace her father. She gives Maya a shy hug and her blush colors even her forehead. We lead them around and chat about the changes. Charlie is stunned.
When they've seen the entire house, we all congregate in the sitting room. Bella makes everyone (except me) hot chocolate and we sit on the rug while Charlie and Maya take the settee. Maya chats animatedly about the craftsmanship and marvels at how the space has changed. A fire burns brightly in the little fireplace. Charlie says, "I never even knew that was there."
Bella nods. "I was shocked! Esme said it was covered with wall board or something. All they did was to paint it. She said the chimney was in good condition."
"I drove by on the first day your family was working on it," Maya says. "I saw Jacob and some of his Wolf buddies carrying out furniture. Edward, please tell your mother that your family and her company did a fantastic job. This is absolutely gorgeous."
Charlie agrees. "Yeah, this is amazing craftsmanship, Edward. Did your whole family pitch in? Do they each have some special expertise?"
I explain what each family member contributed and what was left to Esme's company to finish.
"What about Alice?"
I tell him about my own experience, waking up in Montana after a five-week hiatus, and about the accident in Alaska that claimed the life of Alice's best friend. "Carlisle thinks that my trance was a reaction to stress, that Alice is suffering the same sort of dislocation that I experienced."
Charlie's forehead creases. "I didn't think things like that affected your…kind."
Total honesty. "Carlisle spoke to a member of a…family like ours up in Alaska. Another group that doesn't consume human blood." I wait for a moment while Charlie gets his breathing under control. Maya sits beside him, cool and collected, but she's gripping his hand hard.
"One of the women up there told him that a man had visited and said something odd had happened after he lost his wife." I'm beginning to regret this conversation, as I don't want to explain about the Volturi, but we're here now, and there's no walking back what I've already said.
"Lost his wife?" Charlie frowns. "How…"
Maya leans close to him and whispers, "Remember what I told you about the group that lives in Italy?" Information she'd gotten from the Chief, no doubt, after the tribe's capture and interrogation of Laurent. Charlie blinks and nods uncertainly.
I sigh. "The Volturi make sure that our secret is kept from the humans. That's the only rule: Humans can't know of our existence."
"And if they do?" Charlie asks, his eyes wide.
"No more humans," I say. It's the same thing I'd told Bella, all those months ago, after we'd discussed Jasper's lapse in the high school cafeteria.
"That's why Bella and I told you it was a secret," Maya whispers again.
"Anyway, the man lost his wife. She'd crossed the Volturi somehow, and they destroyed her. He told my friend in Alaska that afterward, he'd fallen into a deep, dreamless sleep that lasted for over a month. She called around to others of our kind that consume human blood to see if any of them had heard of such a thing. None had, which leads us to believe that human blood is protective, somehow."
Charlie thinks for a minute. "So what you're saying is that human blood is better."
"Oh, it's a lot better. But not morally sustainable. Not for us. Everyone in my family is there for one reason, Charlie. We've all decided that we're not going to be murderers."
"Is that a difficult choice?" His stare is focused. He's only trying to understand.
I look around. Just as with Bella and every other human on planet Earth, there isn't anything I can compare it to. No way to make him understand. "Um, yeah. It's very difficult." I think for a moment, deciding to lay it all out, once and for all.
"We're predators, Charlie, like the big cats. Carnivores. And I don't know of another way to say this, but humans smell tasty. All humans. Since we can only metabolize blood, we can get by on animals. The large carnivores, and even bears, taste better, but the ruminants that live around here have to do most of the time, as there are so many more of them. We need to hunt at least every couple of weeks."
Maya says, "I think I've grasped the crux of this, Edward, but correct me if I'm wrong. For us, it's like the difference between a steak that's been seasoned and cooked on the grill, and tofu."
"Exactly. You could survive on tofu if you had to. But steak is so much better."
"But why do you do it?" Charlie looks genuinely confused.
"Bella asked me the same question. We don't want to be monsters, Charlie. We want to fit in to the degree that it's possible."
He thinks about this with a deeply furrowed brow. "Why did this happen to you?"
"I was dying from Spanish influenza. My parents had already passed, and I was near death myself. Carlisle saved me." I see his eyes flicker away and know he's doing the math. "I was changed in 1918, when I was seventeen years and three months old. And before you freak out that I'm like a hundred years older than your daughter, I am also still a virgin, same as Bella. I know you think we've been sleeping together, but I would never touch her before marriage."
Charlie opens his mouth but Bella gets there first. "We spent a lot of time together alone in this house, before Edward left. And also at his house. And now, of course. But that doesn't change the fact that we haven't had sex, dad. But even if we had, I am over eighteen, and can make that decision for myself."
Maya has a death grip on Charlie's hand. She will do anything to protect her man. And this line of questioning is upsetting him, even though he's the one doing the questioning.
"Well, back to Alice. How long has she been…unconscious?"
"It's been a little over a month. I can't hear any thoughts from her at all."
"You can't hear her thoughts." Charlie leans forward and stares at me. "Can you clarify that?"
Yikes. This is a line of questioning that I should have steered clear of. "Um, I can read thoughts, with accompanying pictures. It's usually effortless, and a bit of a bother, if I'm honest. I try to block it all out, unless I'm in a situation where I can make use of the information. The only exceptions are you, Charlie, who I can't hear well, and Bella, who I can't hear at all."
Right this minute, Charlie's thoughts are opaque, murky and uncertain. Maya thinks, Wow! She then narrows her eyes at me, and after a few moments I say, "Your first car was a green Ford Tempo. A five-speed. You learned to drive a stick with that car. Your favorite color is pink and you thought about being a vet when you were a kid."
"You're right!" she says, laughing.
I look at Charlie, who sits impassively before me. "You aren't sure if you believe it. You're…upset? Or, maybe apprehensive, about Bella and her future. And…I can see you looking into a cradle at a dark-haired baby." I shake my head. "Your thoughts never coalesce into full pictures. Whatever shields Bella's mind must come from you, because I had no trouble at all with Renee."
"Hmm. Well, what am I thinking about right now?"
I stare at him, willing his mind to open up to me, knowing that it is futile. "You're thinking about dreams, I think. They…concern you. Or, maybe, worry you. I can't be sure."
Charlie takes a deep breath and glances at Maya. "Right after you left Bella, I had a series of weird dreams that were different than the ones I usually have. They were in bright color."
"But these dreams bothered you?" I ask. "What about them was concerning?"
"It wasn't the dreams that concerned me, but the fact that those particular ones came true."
We all sit for a minute and digest this. Maya is surprised; he hadn't told her. "I dreamed that Bella bought bologna and we had to eat it for breakfast. Then I came home, and there it was in the fridge. And Bella said there were no eggs at the store, so we could have it for breakfast."
Bella nods seriously.
"After I met Maya, I dreamed that she and I were in a little café eating Mexican food on a table covered with a red-checked tablecloth. She wore a white sweater. Then she shows up at my office, wearing a white sweater, with a basketful of Mexican food, and tosses a red-checked tablecloth over my papers so we can eat.
"I had one where Bella and I were in La Push and got attacked by a giant dog. I clearly saw myself falling, my yellow shirt stained red with the blood. I didn't worry about that one, as I didn't own a yellow shirt."
Bella gasps. "The one from the thrift store. You were wearing it that day, with Victoria and the Wolf."
"Yep. I had the dream and then opened up my closet, and there it was, hanging with the others you'd bought for me. I decided I'd just give that yellow one to Mark, and even took it out to the cruiser right then, but forgot about it until the day of the attack. Maya vomited on my uniform shirt and I had nothing to change into, so I yanked it out of its bag and pulled it on."
Bella sits up straight, her lips parted in shock, her face drained of what little color it normally has. "I dreamed the same thing!" she says with a gasp. "A big dog attacked you on the reservation, and when I tried to help you, it got my arm." She looks around in wonder. "You were wearing a yellow shirt. In the dream, it was so bright, the yellow fabric and the red blood."
While everyone is turning this over in their heads, Bella says, "I also dreamed that I saw a woman with red hair, wearing my blue sweater." She turns to me. "I told you when Victoria showed up on Jacob's street, Edward. Then I saw her, looking just like she had in the dream. There was someone else there, a tall person, dressed all in blue. That was you." She looks at me in wonder. "I didn't realize at the time. I didn't think much about the dreams. I was just so miserable."
Maya says, "The Chief did a magic spell with the amulet." She looks at Bella and me. "You know about this, right?"
We both nod. I'd told Bella about it when Carlisle and I got back from the reservation, the day after the confrontation with Victoria. "Old Quil said that the magic hovered over the area, taking power from the two supernatural factions that live, or lived here. Now, I know you and your family had left, Edward, but Quil thinks the energy was still present. So, maybe that's why Charlie and Bella had those weird, prophetic dreams."
Now everyone is looking around at everyone else. Charlie shakes his head slightly and says, "I also dreamed that you and your family were birds, Edward. You'd all pretend to be human by day but then transformed at night into big, beautiful birds. After you'd left, I had a hard time convincing myself that you hadn't migrated." And those are startling words from the Forks Chief of Police.
He chews his lip. "But there's more," I say. I can see that he hasn't told us the one that worries him the most.
"I dreamed that Bella tore the house down, and then Maya came by and told me about the demo and the big mess in the yard. When Bella sent me the pictures you'd taken, the inside of the house looked exactly like it did in my dream.
"I also dreamed that Maya and I went to graduation, but you two weren't there." He pauses again and bites his lip some more. Finally, he says, "The worst one was of you, Bella. You're wearing a long shirt with big white buttons that I've never seen before. Something happens and you're lying on the ground in a pool of blood."
There's not much to say after these revelations. I help Charlie to Maya's car and as he collapses down onto the seat, he says, "I'd like to speak to Alice. I know she probably won't hear me, but she was good to Bella."
I tell him I'll call in a few days and he can go out to the house. I don't tell him that I heard in the haze of his foggy thoughts that his physical therapy isn't helping much and he's had to take an extended leave from work, something his physician isn't certain he'll be able to return to.
Bella and I watch Maya's car until it's out of sight. She tries to eat supper, but can't manage more than a few bites. When I tuck her into bed, I sit beside her until she falls asleep, then run to Vancouver and back, hoping to bleed off some of the tension I feel due to Charlie's admissions.
When I get back home, I go through all of Bella's clothes, searching for a long shirt with white buttons. I look through every drawer, on all the hangers, and in the laundry. There isn't a shirt like that. I vow that a long shirt with white buttons won't come near her until she's safely changed.
I sit and watch Bella sleep, worrying about Charlie's dreams. Were they from the Chief's spell? And how many haven't yet come true?