One: Nightmare

“NO!” Jennifer screamed, sitting straight up in bed.

When Jen screamed, Stephanie bolted upright next to her. “Jesus, Jen!” she said loudly, frightened by her friend’s outburst. “What’s wrong?” As she fumbled for the light on the nightstand, she could feel the waves of fear emanating from her friend.

All Jennifer could see was smoke and fire. All she could hear were screams and prayers. She smelled thick smoke, and the acrid fumes of something burning stabbed at her eyes. She could even taste the thick clouds in the back of her throat. Jennifer wiped at her eyes, but her vision wouldn’t clear. She couldn’t see through the smoke. The screaming diminished as the roar of the flames grew louder. Straining her ears, Jen thought she heard someone calling her name, but she couldn’t quite make it out. Her heart raced as she cocked her head from side to side, trying to find the voice. She sobbed when she couldn’t. She had to find the voice. She’d be safe if only she could reach the voice. The voice had to be Rich. He had come to save her.

“Jen, it’s me, Steph. Jen. JEN!” Stephanie could tell that her friend heard her, but there was something wrong. Jennifer turned her gaze toward Stephanie, but Steph could see that Jen didn’t really see her.

“Rich?” Jennifer called, her voice high and shrill. “Richie, is that you? I’m so scared, and I can’t see you! Where are you? Please help me! HURRY!”

“What the fuck?” Gail said, running into the room. “Jennifer, what the hell is going on?”

Stephanie looked at Gail, then back at Jen. “I don’t know what’s wrong. I think she’s still asleep. She’s having some sort of freaking nightmare.” She waved a hand in front of Jen’s glazed eyes to illustrate her point.

When they girls heard Jen’s call for Rich get more frantic, they mobilized. One sat on either side of her, grabbed her arms, and yelled loudly. “JEN! Wake up!”

Slowly, Jen’s eyes focused. When she saw where she was, she cried. “Oh God,” she said, bursting into tears and flinging herself into Gail’s arms. Stephanie crowded in close and hugged her from behind. They sat like that for a long time while Jennifer got herself under control.

When Jen started to push back, the girls straightened. “That was some dream, honey. You wanna talk about it?” Gail said, wiping the tears from Jen’s face with the sheets.

“No,” Jen said, shaking her head to try to clear the images. She could still smell the smoke, and felt warm, as if she were still close to the flames. “I have to call Rich. There’s no way I’m getting on that plane in the morning. I can’t. I’ll never make it to L.A.”

“Why?” Stephanie said, as Jen slid out of bed and slowly crossed the room to the desk. “What happened?”

Jen was just shaking her head as she sat down and picked up the phone. With shaking fingers she dialed Richie’s number. “Pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up,” she said, the words a mantra as she rocked herself in the chair.

By the third ring, Richie was sitting up in bed, the sheets sliding down his bare chest, wondering who the hell would be calling him at – ugh – two in the morning. He’d barely gotten to sleep. “What,” he groused into the phone.

“Rich?” a small, scared voice trembled on the other end. “It’s me, are you awake?”

Richie shook the sleep from his head like a dog with rain. “I am now, darlin’; what’s wrong? Are you okay? What’s happened?”

Jennifer burst into fresh tears. “Oh, Rich, it was awful. There was this big noise, then plane was on fire and it was falling, and people were screaming, and there was something burning, and oh God, that smell, and I heard you calling my name, but couldn’t find you, and all I could think about was not being able to spend my life with you and not being able to carry your children and ...”

Gail and Stephanie watched as their friend chattered manically before finally crumbling in her chair. They were by her side in an instant, Stephanie gently taking the receiver from her friend. “Rich, she had one hell of a dream,” she said into the receiver. “Jen woke up screaming, and Gail and I had a hard time bringing her out of it. She said she wasn’t going to be flying out. She’s really freaked out.”

Richie held the receiver close to his ear. He could hear Jen crying softly in the background, and it broke his heart. “Damn, Stephanie, what does she want me to do? Does she want me to come there? I can be there in a few hours.” He was out of bed and pulling on last night’s jeans before he had his answer.

Stephanie passed Richie’s question on to Jen, who shook her head. “All my stuff is on the way to LA, I’ll find another way out there. I don’t want him on a plane either. Or you guys. Not for a few days at least.” She sniffled and took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m alright,” she said, reaching for the phone. “Rich, I’m okay. You don’t need to come all the way out here. Please don’t. Promise you won’t.”

“Are you sure Jen? I can fly out to you, and we can come back here together. We can take a leisurely drive across the country, or take a train or something.”

“A train!” Jen answered, smiling. “Why don’t we do that? Yes, a train, that’s perfect, absolutely perfect. Why don’t we meet halfway, though? You take the train from LA and I’ll leave from Boston. It’ll be like a junior high school math problem.” She knew she was babbling, but she didn’t care. “We can catch up in Chicago or something, and travel the rest of the way together. I don’t want to wait to see you, Rich, not one more day than I have to. But I just can’t get on a plane, and you can’t either. Not yet. Swear to me you won’t get on a plane for a few days.”

“Okay,” he said, yawning widely.

“Swear to me, Rich. This is important. I need the words. Tell the guys, too. No planes.” Richie didn’t say anything. “Promise me, dammit!”

Richie took a deep breath. She was going off the deep end. “Alright, I swear to you, Jen, I won’t get on a plane. Okay?”

“Okay.” She sniffled and took a deep shaky breath. “You’ll call the guys, too, and tell them?”

“The guys too,” Richie confirmed. “Are you alright now?” he asked gently.

“I will be,” she answered. “I’ll call you later with the train information. I love you.”

“I love you too, sweetheart. Talk to you soon. Can I talk to Stephanie again?”

Jennifer handed the phone to Steph and disappeared into her bathroom. After making sure the door was closed, Stephanie put the call on speaker phone so Gail could hear, too.

“Richie, I’ve never seen her like this; what do you want us to do?”

“Call her mother in the morning, stay with her as long as you can. She scared the shit out of me, I don’t mind telling you. What was all that about a smell?”

Gail shook her head. “We don’t know. I came into the room, and she was screaming like a fucking banshee. Then she started panicking, calling out for you to save her, and it damned near broke my heart.”

“She wouldn’t wake up, Rich,” Stephanie said. “It took both me and Gail shaking her and yelling in her ears to get through to her. I’ve never been so scared in my whole life.”

Stephanie heard the toilet flush and the tap run. “Rich, she’s on her way back.”

“We’ll take care of her,” Gail said. “You can make damned sure of that. And we’ll call Ma first thing.”

Richie sighed. “I guess that’ll have to do. Would she kill me if I flew out there anyway?”

“After you promised her you wouldn’t?” Stephanie said. “What do you think?”

“You’re right,” Richie reluctantly answered. “Okay, take care of my girl.

“We will. Good night,” Stephanie said.

“Good night.”

Jennifer was still asleep when Ma arrived. “How’s my baby?” she asked Gail, tears in her voice. “Is she really okay?”

“She’s fine, Ma,” Gail answered, hugging the older woman. “She had an awful dream, said she couldn’t get on the plane, and called Richie in the middle of the night to tell him. Steph and I convinced her to take one of her Xanax, and she fell into a fitful sleep around five.”

They headed upstairs to Jennifer’s bedroom. When they opened the door, they saw Stephanie still sitting on her side of the bed, with her laptop across her legs. “How is she,” Gail whispered.

“Out for the count,” Steph answered. “But I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

“Thank you, Stephanie,” Ma said, coming to the bedside. “She’s lucky to have such good friends as you.”

Stephanie smiled. “We’re all lucky,” Stephanie said. “Look at this.” She turned the computer around, and Gail and Ma sucked in a breath. The plane allotted to an early morning flight out of Logan had developed mechanical problems, and the flight had been canceled.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Ma said, crossing herself. “That was her flight?”

Stephanie nodded. “Yep, seems our girl has a touch of clairvoyance,” she said.

“No,” Ma said, shaking her head. “It just wasn’t her time, and God was letting her know. I’ll stay with her.”

“Of course,” Stephanie said. She climbed gingerly out of bed, and padded from the room. As she was closing the door, she heard Ma speaking softly in Italian to her daughter. She peeked back to see Ma sitting on the bed, stroking her hair and murmuring, her fingers worrying well-worn rosary beads.

“Now what?” Gail said, blowing her hair out of her eyes.

“Now we see about getting something to eat. Jen stored away all her EVERYTHING, and...”

Gail laughed. “Ma came with a grocery sack full of stuff,” she said. “Let’s see what she brought.”


Hours later, Jennifer woke up with a start. She saw the familiar nightstand and lamp and was momentarily confused. The evening’s dream slammed back into her full-force, and she sat up abruptly, only to be scooped into the embrace of her mother.

“Mama,” Jen said softly. “I’m so glad you’re here. It was terrible.” She told her mother everything. About the sights, sounds, and smells of her dream. She kept a steady voice until she came to the part about never knowing her mother’s advice as she went through pregnancy, then she lost it.

“Ah, cara, don’t cry, you are alright.” Ma rocked her daughter, whispering the same words over and over until she felt her daughter relax in her arms. Jennifer sat up, and Ma framed her face with soft hands. “You are alright. It was just a dream.”

“I know, but it was so real,” Jennifer answered. She sighed. “What time is it?”

“A little after three,” Ma answered. “Richard has been calling every hour or so, to see if you were awake yet.”

“He is a good man,” Jennifer answered. “I should call him back, let him know I’m alright.”

Ma handed her the phone just as it started to ring.

“How do you do that?” Jennifer said by way of greeting. “I was just going to call you.”

“Sweetheart, how are you?”

“Feeling a little silly for getting all worked up over a dream,” she said bravely.

“But are you okay?”

“Yes, baby, I’m okay. I miss you, though. If I hadn’t had that stupid dream, I could be there with you right now.”

“Uh, darlin’, is there someone with you?”

Jennifer frowned into the phone. “Yeah, Ma’s here. Why?”

Richie blew out a breath. “The flight you were supposed to be on was canceled today.” He heard Jennifer gasp on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, I know. There were mechanical problems, and the maintenance crew tried to fix them, but couldn’t. They scrambled for a different plane, but the flight didn’t leave until almost noon. At best, you’d still be somewhere over the Midwest. At worst...” Richie trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud.

“Damn,” Jennifer said, growing cold. “That’s – that’s – just – ”

“Eerie?” Richie supplied, helpfully.

“Yeah, wicked eerie.” She sighed. “You still aren’t flying out, right?”

“A promise is a promise,” Richie said. “I wish to hell you’d let me come out to you, but I’ll honor your wishes. I went ahead and took care of the train, though.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Jennifer protested.

“I had to do something,” Richie said. “This way, I felt useful. I emailed your itinerary, but basically, tomorrow at lunch time, you get on the train in Boston, and the next day, I’ll meet you in Chicago, and we can travel the rest of the way together.” He chuckled. “Ava’s pissed that I won’t let her come with me, but we’ll see her when you get here.”

“Rich, thank you,” she said. “Thanks for taking care of all that, and for keeping your promise. It means a lot to me.”

“I love you, sweetheart,” Richie said, his voice low, grumbly, and full of promise.

Casting a sidelong look at her mother, she answered, “I love you too, baby. More than you know.”

“Hi, Richard! We will see you for the wedding,” Ma shouted, making Jen giggle.

“Tell Ma I said hi,” Richie said, laughing. “You, I will see in a few days, alright?”

“Absolutely.”

“And if you’re really good, I’ll have a surprise for you when I see you.”

Jennifer’s thoughts immediately turned raunchy, and she smiled. “Oh you will, will you? You promise?”

“Of course. And you know me, I always keep my word.”

“You sure do, Rich. I need to go get something to eat. Stephanie made me take a Xanax, and I slept through breakfast and lunch.”

“Okay, baby, go have lunch or a snack or whatever. I’ll see you soon, and talk to you later.”

“You betcha,” Jennifer said, smiling. “I love you, Rich.”

“Love you too, Jennifer.”

“Bye.”