Dream A Little Dream
Chapter 4
By chandlove7
A/N: In the first chapter I said that Julia turned 17 on April 14th, 2002. I really meant 2013. Sorry for the mishap.
Just as soon as she had closed her eyes, she opened them again to the obnoxious ringing of her alarm clock. She had not dreamt again. But the speeches of her first dream of that night crept back into her mind. She felt as if she could continue that conversation. Could hear more of it, without dreaming. But as much as she wanted to hear the thoughts, she knew she would not make it through the day if her mind focused solely on that time before.
She quickly got dressed and went downstairs to breakfast. She still hadn't confronted her mother about the articles. But for some reason, she felt that to confront someone else would only take away the dreams – the dreams she hated, and the dreams she longed for. The dreams that both terrified and enchanted her. Her mother brought her out of her trance by asking her what she wanted for breakfast. "Oh…um…I'll have some cereal." stammered Julia. "Are you alright, Jul?" asked her mother. "Yeah, I'm fine," said Julia. She had to keep her guard up – she couldn't let her mother think there was anything wrong.
Julia decided that she wanted to drive herself to school today, she felt that she needed to be alone with her thoughts. The sight of the blond man in her dreams brought a pain to her heart that she had never felt before. It was as if someone was ripping her heart slowly, taking away feeling and meaning. Taking away life. As she drove to school, she turned on the radio, and her heart caught in her throat as she heard the song.
Come Josephine, in my flying machine
Going up, she goes! Up she goes!
Balance yourself like a bird on a beam
In the air she goes; there she goes!
As Julia listened to the song, she felt an odd sensation. She felt as if she was flying out over an expanse of water, like the ocean. She didn't know why. As the song ended, Julia heard the radio announcer say that today was the day the song had first premiered. What an interesting thing to do, thought Julia. The drive to school went fairly quickly, and soon Julia found herself parking the car and getting out. She saw Jackie in the parking lot and started to walk over to her. "Jack!" she called. "Hey Jul," Jackie answered. "Look, I'm sorry about being so weird and distant yesterday," said Julia. "It's really no big deal Jules. I understand that these dreams are really hard for you." Jackie responded. The two girls walked in to school together, happy that they had made up and could get through the dream thing together.
That night, as Julia sank into bed, the last thing she saw as she drifted off to sleep was the lock of hair falling into the man's eyes. She began to dream, and was surprised that the dream continued from where it had stopped last night.
"Freezing," he said. "Maybe a couple degrees over." That cold? She thought to herself. But she was so close, she couldn't change her mind. "Ever been to Wisconsin?" he asked her. Wisconsin? She asked herself. What did THAT have to do with anything? "No," she responded. "Well, they have some of the coldest winters around, and I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. Once when I was a kid me and my father were ice-fishing out on Lake Wissota... ice-fishing's where you chop a hole in the-" "I know what ice fishing is!" she responded curtly. "Sorry. Just... you look like kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I went through some thin ice and I'm tellin' ya, water that cold... like that right down there... it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. You can't breath, you can't think... least not about anything but the pain. Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in after you. But like I said, I don't see a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the rail and get me off the hook here." He explained. "You're crazy," she told him. "That's what everyone says, but with all due respect miss, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here." He responded. She was now second-guessing herself, realizing what ending her life would mean. "Come on, you don't want to do this. Give me your hand," he pleaded, wanting to save the life of this beautiful stranger. After much thought, she decided that she did in fact need to come back over, if only to please this stranger. "Alright," she told him. She grasped his hand and turned herself around, looking into his eyes. "I'm Jack Dawson," he told her, expecting her to respond. And she did. "Rose DeWitt Bukater."