The night before we arrived in Santa Carla, we'd stopped in at a motel for the night. I was snuggled next to Michael and Sammy, Lucy and Nanook were snuggled into the other bed. As we had as children, Michael and I held hands as we prepared for sleep, facing each other. We grinned at each other, whispering our hopes for the new place and for the future. As we slid into sleep, I began to dream.
Carnival music played loudly in the background. I was moving up and down, seated on a Carousel horse. I watched as four young men came into sight. Three blondes, one brunette. The first, with his ice cold eyes, was dressed in black, from black leather gloves and trench coat, all the way to his black leather boots. I knew his name.
"David," I whispered.
Beside him, tall and dark of hair and skin and eyes, "Dwayne," I whispered. He was shirtless, covered only by his leather-and-leopard print jacket and jeans. His boots were heavy, but he walked almost soundlessly.
Next to Dwayne, tall, blonde and very rock-and-roll, hair in a wild style, if it could even be called that. He was wearing a mesh shirt under a tuxedo jacket decorated with silver conchos and pins. "Paul," I whispered.
And finally, the smallest of the Lost Boys, but definitely not the least, "Marko," my voice was quiet. He was wearing a colorful jacket of pieced-together patches. His hair was long and curly and his smile was sweet but there was something feral in his eyes.
I watched as they harassed the Surf Nazi's girlfriend, David running his gloved hand over her cheek to inflame the foolish rival gang member. Unfortunately, the fight caught the attention of the security guard who suddenly had a baton at David's throat. I watched as he ordered them all off the boardwalk. and watched, with a slight sense of foreboding and horror as they came back later and ripped him away from the boardwalk, never to be seen again.
I gasped awake, sweating and breathing hard. I looked around, everyone else was already up and moving around. "There you are, I was just getting ready to wake you up," Lucy said. She knew how hard a time I usually had falling asleep after suffering from years of insomnia, so I was usually allowed to sleep as long as it was possible before having to be woken up. And I am most definitely not a morning person. I groaned and nodded, dragging myself from the warm blankets and into the bathroom.
I used the toilet, washed my face and brushed my teeth. I took my hair out of the braid I'd secured it in the night before and shook it out before brushing it, shivering when the hip-length mass swished against my back. I pulled it back into a ponytail before using a scrunchie to hold it back into a soft bun. I knew that Michael wanted to ride his motorcycle for a while today and I always rode with him. I didn't want my hair to get ridiculously tangled during the ride, so pulling it back was a necessity.
I walked back into the bedroom and dug through my bag for clean clothes. I gathered a pair of comfortable jeans and a Bon Jovi shirt. I slipped on a clean pair of socks and my tennis shoes and was ready to go. I slipped a pair of small amethyst studs into my ears and a few silver rings on my fingers and I was finished. We all clambered into Lucy's truck and away we went. We stopped after a few hours at a gas station, and sure enough, Michael pulled his bike off the Uhaul.
"Want to ride, Maddie?" he asked, starting the engine.
I grinned. "You know it, big brother," I teased him, as he was only seven minutes older than I was. I climbed on behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck as I stood on the bars while waiting for Mom to pull out.
"Sit down, Maddie!" Michael warned. I huffed and sat down. "Spoilsport. We weren't even moving yet," I laughed, and poked him in the side, making the both of us laugh when he yelped. He grinned back at me before hitting the gas, causing me to fly forward, bumping my head against his back. "Jerk!" I cried and whacked him on the back of the head before we took off for real, following Mom out of Santa Carla and towards Grandpa's. We pull up to a large farm, complete with horses and what appears to be a log cabin surrounded by wooden corral-fences and carved wooden sculptures Grandpa had created. "Wow!" I said, nodding towards one carved to look like an American Indian. "Think Grandpa would let me put that in my room?" I asked Michael. He just laughed at me before replying, "You're his favorite, he might." "Of course I am, I'm the only granddaughter!" I laughed in his ear.
As we pulled into the driveway closer to the house, we saw Grandpa lying on the floor. "Dad?" Lucy said, checking him over, saying what a deep sleeper he was. "If he's dead, can we go back to Phoenix?" Sam asked, and Michael and Lucy glared at him, while I smacked him in the back of the head. "That's enough, nimrod. Get it through your thick skull, we're here to stay," I said in his ear.
Grandpa sat up, saying he'd been playing dead and apparently doing a damn good job of it. I grinned at him and threw myself into his arms for a hug. "Grandpa!"
He hugged me close for a minute. "There's my Maddie-girl!" he exclaimed. I helped him up off the floor and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we went inside. As the boys started bringing their stuff in, Grandpa showed me to my room. "The boys get to pick between the other two, but I remembered how much you love being able to watch the horses and the woods," Grandpa said, showing me to a room with a full-view of the horse pasture. I grinned when I saw that he'd taken the old, small windows out and had replaced them with large bay windows complete with a window seat and tons of bookshelves. "Thanks, Grandpa! I love it!"
I hurried downstairs and with Michael's help was able to carry up my boxes of books and my violin, the only things besides my clothes and my small stereo that I'd cared about keeping from all my stuff from Phoenix. I listened as my brothers ran around downstairs, while I turned on my stereo, popping in a casette of Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, singing along as I tacked up pictures I'd drawn. I'm not entirely sure if it was a gift from the lady this time around, but we'd found over the years that I could draw from memory, as if I'd taken a picture in my mind. There were images of Lucy, Michael and Sam, a study of Nanook, a collage of my friends from Phoenix. I'd gotten into the habit of keeping a drawing pad on me at all times, along with pencils.
"Madison, we're going to town, do you want to come?" Lucy called up to me. I looked up, surprised that it was dark already. I grinned to myself, knowing that tonight I would finally see the boys for the first time with my own eyes. "Coming, Mom!" I said. I pulled a denim jacket over my shirt as it had cooled a bit once the sun set. I grabbed my cross-body bag and stuffed my art book and pencils inside. I debated bringing my violin. Hmm, not tonight, I decided and wandered downstairs.
When we made it into town, the boys took off towards the beach to watch the saxophone player who was performing that night. I thought about joining them, remembering he was rather good, but I knew that I would see the boys sooner if I went with Lucy. "You guys go on, I'm going to hang with Mom for a while. Maybe we'll both be able to find jobs!" I said brightly.
Lucy looked at me in surprise. "Are you sure, honey? I know you love music. You don't have to hang out with your old Mom and miss this guy."
"I'm sure, Mom. Besides we'll be able to hear most of it anyways from here," I replied. So we wandered the boardwalk shops looking for places that were offering jobs. I felt the nerves in my body begin to tingle as we got closer and closer to Max's Video. "Hey Mom, I'm going to go look around in here, okay?" I asked, nodding towards the store. I knew within a few minutes, she'd spot the little boy Terry and be coming in herself.
"Okay," she said, and I wandered into the store. I looked around and smiled, heading towards an out of the way shelf. What I didn't expect was the dog. As what I called the Angel-Lady had said, animals adored me and as I turned, there was Thorn, Max's dog. Without warning, he jumped up on his hind legs, his front paws on my shoulders, knocking me backwards to the floor and licking my face. I heard gasps from the room, and Max's outraged voice telling him to "Get off the young lady, Thorn!"
Meanwhile, I was laughing as he bathed my face in doggy kisses. I ran my hands over his chest and head. "Well hello, Thorn," I said. I put my hand on his chest and he stopped the kisses. I looked up and found Max staring at me in surprise, as well as having caught the attention of the boys. David's casual smirk, the other boys looking on with various looks of surprise/humor. And then Mom's voice asking about Terry. I watched from my spot laying on the floor as Mom asked about the little boy's mother and then mother and son were reunited. I listened as Max told the boys to leave. Mom looked over and saw me still lying on the ground, Thorn still perched over me.
"Find a new friend, Maddie?" she asked. I grinned and nodded.
"I am so sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him. Thorn, off, right now," he said. Thorn merely yawned and plopped his behind on my stomach, making me give a soft "oof!" and began to wag his tail. Mom laughed. "It's ok, animals have always been that way with her. Just watch," Mom said, nodding to me.
I smiled and turned to Thorn. "Thorn, off please?" He gave me one last quick doggy kiss and nimbly leaped off me, before turning around three times and laying down as if I'd never walked into the store. "Good boy," I said and petted his head, causing him to wag his tail madly.
"Well, I've never seen the like. You are an animal charmer, Miss," Max said, handing me a lollipop. I smiled and took it.
"Thanks," I said. I turned to Mom. "Mom, I'm going to go wander around for a while, I'll meet back up with Michael and Sam."
I wandered along the boardwalk and perched myself on a bench under a streetlamp across from where the boys had parked their bikes, knowing that Michael would be coming with Sammy, following Star and Laddie. I watched as they teased each other, and I pulled out my drawing pad and a pencil and began sketching out an image of the boys on their bikes.
As expected, before too long, there was Star and Laddie, followed by a love-struck Michael and Sammy teasing him. I stood and closed my pad, putting it and my pencils in my bag and headed over to them. I reached them just as the boys looked up, David helping Star onto the back of his bike, Dwayne helping Laddie to mount his. David smirked as he saw Michael's eyes follow star, and then turned to see me as well. Something odd flashed in his eyes for a second before he resumed his smirk and the boys revved their bikes before taking off. "Oh, she stiffed ya," Sammy teased Michael.
That night as I climbed into bed, it was with a smile. I had seen them. My eyes flicked to the newest addition to my collection of drawings on my wall. It was the boys on their bikes, minus Star. Laddie's little blonde head peeked behind Dwayne's back, though. David's eyes sparkled with humor and something slightly more chilling. Paul and Marko's glinted with laughter and Dwayne's eyes were as calm as he seemed. "Goodnight, boys," I said softly and my eyes drifted closed.
The dream began with a car parked overlooking the bright lights of the boardwalk. Inside were Shelley and Greg, the two from the first night I'd dreamed. They were in the back of the car, Shelley reading a comic and laughing, Greg kissing along her neck and trying to get lucky. Shelley smacked him when he interrupted her reading, but it didn't dissuade Greg one bit. He continued his overly enthusiastic wooing until there was a noise and Shelley pushed him off. "What was that?" she asked, panic in her voice.
"What was what?" Greg asked.
"I thought I heard something," she said, concerned.
"Forget it," Greg said, trying to return to his amorous advances. Suddenly the roof was torn off the car, and the night was filled with their screams as first Greg, then Shelley were yanked from the car and into the night.
I gasped awake, and once more it was morning. I laid back on the bed for a few minutes before Sam opened the door and Nanook launched himself on top of me on the bed. "Morning, 'Nook," I said. Sammy came and plopped beside me in the bed. "Grandpa wants to know if we want to go to town?"
I yawned and nodded. "Sure, I'll be right down." I said. I quickly pulled on clean clothes and skipped down the stairs. I joined Grandpa and Sammy in the back of Grandpa's car. He turned the car on, and it gave a gentle rumble. "See that? Purrs like a kitten," he said, before turning the car off.
"I thought we were going to town?" Sam asked.
"That's as close to town as I like to get," said Grandpa, climbing out of the car. I laughed and climbed out too.
"Come on, Sam. I'll make us some breakfast and then we'll hit the boardwalk later with Michael," I said. He grumbled but followed. I wrapped my arm around him, knowing he was disappointed. "Maybe Grandpa will let me drive it and I'll take you with me, okay, bud?" I said. He looked at me and grinned.
"You are by far the best older sister, ever!" he said and took off running into the house. I laughed and walked back inside and started to whip up eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast. I called everyone down, though Lucy was already at work. The "menfolk" were appreciative of the meal and I cleaned up with Michael's help. "Well boys, I'm going to go read for a few hours, yell when you're ready to head out, okay, Michael?" I said. He nodded and I wandered upstairs to reread a copy of Interview with a Vampire for the millionth time, excited as to what the evening would bring.