Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63214 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 316(@200wpm)___ 253(@250wpm)___ 211(@300wpm)
Now Faith had disappeared and I had no idea where she’d gone.
My phone rang.
I checked the screen.
Addie Mae.
“Thank God!” I yelled into the phone. My heart pounded with each second.
Addie Mae didn’t even comment on my hysteria. “Where’s my baby?”
“I don’t know. She disappeared and there was this ice man. Okay. I don’t know about that. But she thinks an ice man or snowman. Something is alive and she thinks—”
“Where are you?”
“At her house. She was in the bedroom. I went downstairs to pack. I was going to take her to my house, but then I came back and she just disappeared, but the window is open. Last time it was open, she said that he came to her. I think he did. Or maybe he didn’t and she just left. I don’t know. I don’t fucking know.”
Addie Mae’s voice remained calm. “Daniel.”
I caught my breath. “Yes.”
“Calm down.”
“Okay.”
“Do you have your clothes on?” she asked.
“What?”
“Answer the question, sweetie.”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Why did you think I didn’t have any clothes on?”
She ignored my question. “And my daughter was in her house and now she’s not?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Addie Mae, there’s a storm and—”
“Hush. I walked these snowy mountains long before you were ever born. I need you to concentrate on something for me. We have to save time.”
“Okay,” I said.
“Go downstairs. Her pantry is on the right of the stove.”
“I know where that’s at.”
“Go into the pantry and push the back wall where the shelves are at.”
“What?”
“Push where you see the rice on that middle shelf. The wall should open just fine. Are you there yet?”
“Excuse me?”
“Are you there now?”
“No. What do you mean the pantry wall opens up?”
Her voice darkened. “Get down there, Daniel! Hurry.”
“Okay.” I almost tripped over my own feet. I was so out of my element. Give me a gun and a bear roaring in front of me and I would’ve remained steady with no fear.
This snowman hoodoo stuff was above my head.
Listening to her, I hurried downstairs, went to the pantry, opened the door, and pushed the wall. I kept the phone to my ear. It took four hard shoves, but the wall opened right before me.
Addie Mae’s voice carried over the phone. “What are you doing?”
I gave the wall a few hard shoves. A creak sounded and then light slipped through the dark pantry as the wall moved forward.
I swallowed and gripped the phone tighter. “It’s. . .it’s open.”
Nothing prepared me for the view in front of my eyes. I figured it would be a secret room of some sorts, but not. . .an entire. . .different world.
Well.
It wasn’t a world.
Maybe the best way to describe this place was to say it was a garden, surrounded by gray stones. Old stones too. Vines clung to them. Above the walled in garden, a blue sky streamed with violet rays and a fucking bird. . .a fucking blue and green bird flew above it!!
Still standing in the pantry, I backed up. “Okay. I’m dreaming. This is an elaborate dream. I don’t know, when it started, probably when I saw Faith moaning in the snow and talking to the imaginary—”
“What?” Addie Mae’s voice rose an octave. “Faith was in the snow, moaning?”
Right in front of me, several butterflies dotted around odd flowers and herbs that expanded several feet out and stopped by the walls.
“Yes. I’m dreaming.” I dropped the phone and lowered to the ground. “None of this is real.”
Still sitting on the ground in shock, I looked behind me and peeked out of the door. The window was above the sink. Outside, it was night and snow stormed down on mountains. I directed my view back to the pantry wall’s opening.
In the back of Faith’s pantry, a sunny sky bathed some odd-looking tropical garden.
Sun? There’s a sun there. But here, it’s dark clouds. What. The. Fuck!?
“Daniel!” Addie Mae’s voice rose from the phone. “Daniel, are you there?”
I picked up the phone. “Maybe you’re the message in my dream. Remember how you always tell me that it’s easy to interpret dreams, when you realize that every person in the dream is you. Or me. So, everybody is me?”
“Boy, you’re losing it. Just stay in front of that pantry door. I’m almost there. I’m walking up the driveway.”
“You’re walking up the driveway? It’s a snow storm. You live miles away. How did you get here so fast?” I glanced back at the garden. “Because I’m dreaming that’s why. What am I supposed to learn from this? The house is my soul, right?
Addie Mae laughed, but it didn’t sound cheery. Her voice was on edge just like my sanity was teetering off a ledge.
“Yes,” she said. “If you were dreaming and you were in a house, the house would represent your soul. The only problem is you’re not dreaming. You’re just seeing more things than you should this evening. I could make you some soup that will help you forget about it.”