Snow and Oranges

Regen Janson awoke with a start and sat up in bed. She blinked hard, then wiped the snow from the corners of her eyes. Looking to the dusty, pink moomin alarm clock next to her bed, the same one she'd had since she was seven years old, she saw that it was 03:00 am on the dot. She lay back down on her back and stared up at the ceiling. Her pillow was wet and cold but instead of moving away she waited for the snow to fade away like it usually did. She stayed still for a minute, then two, before she sat up again. She pulled the pillow onto her lap and stared at it in the dim light of the moon that shone through the window. She felt the back of her head with one hand. It was wet. She dropped the pillow on the floor next to her bed then pulled a towel from her bedside drawer. After laying it on a different pillow, she lay back down and after a pensive half hour, fell asleep and slept through the rest of night. 

 The next morning at promptly 07:45 am, Regen rode her ‘whisper boat’ (a glorified motorized dinghy) and set off down the canal to the athenaeum, the school she attended. She wore her shoulder length curly dark hair in a thick ponytail. It was still slightly damp from the previous night. She wore the optional summer uniform of the athenaeum ; a short sleeved white shirt tucked into blue slacks and black leather shoes with buckles. Her navy blue canvas backpack sat next to her and her navy blue blazer lay folded over her lap. With one hand resting on the steering handle and the other on the page of the novel in her lap, she steered the boat without looking up until she reached the academy. It was something she'd done hundreds of times since she’d moved to the town and started attending the school years ago.

As usual most of her classmates arrived at the same time she did. Fatima de Jong floated off her boat while sleepily rubbing her eyes. Her long brown hair streamed behind her in its loose ponytail. “Mornin’ Regen” she greeted absentmindedly. Regen poked the dark skinned girl's foot as it passed over her head. “Good morning”. When Finn Jonkers and Mara de Vries sauntered past arm in arm and flower petals dropped at Maras feet in a patchy carpet, Regen's attention shifted back to the previous night. It still hadn't gotten any clearer to her. She realized she'd need to investigate. “Hey Fatima!” she called as she jogged ahead of the couple.

Unbeknownst to her, a few flower petals jostled into mini hurricanes for a few seconds before they resumed their descent to the cobblestoned path in her wake.

When she reached Fatima, the girl had already paused and turned back but Regen still grabbed her ankle, which was at her face level, just in case. Fatima had a reputation for floating off during conversations, or even lessons, she didn't find particularly stimulating - she claimed she couldn't help it but that was debatable. “What's up?” she raised her thick eyebrows in question before she floated down to eye level and started walking briskly, her feet still a few centimeters from the ground. Regen fell into step besides her, feet firmly planted on the ground. “You know everyone's business in school” she stated. Fatima pouted guiltily and floated a few centimeters higher causing Regan to grab the corner of her denim jacket. “Just cutting to the chase then, huh?” she complained. Regen huffed a laugh at Fatima’s defensive tone. She knew that Fatima took advantage of the fact that many people didn't check the skies above them before spilling secrets. “Well? You want information then? Don't you?” Fatima pressed. Regen nodded, she decided to get straight to the point.“I need to know if there's anyone with dream related powers in school”. Fatima furrowed her eyebrows in thought. “Someone with dream related powers…” she repeated pensively. “I know of a few” she said vaguely. “You might have to be more specific” she added, a sly gleam in her eyes. Regen rolled her eyes. “A boy. Olive skin, dark curly hair, hazel eyes. Maybe some Moroccan ancestry”. Fatima was fully back to floating by that point. In her position of floating on her back, legs crossed, arms behind her head, along with the smug look on her face, she looked way too satisfied to Regens liking.

 “Well, well, well, our stoic and studious Ms Regen Jansen is looking for a boy? And a dream hopper at that” she teased. Regen rolled her eyes. “Well? Do you know him or not?”. Fatima stayed in smug silence for a few more seconds before her curiosity got the better of her. “He's new, just transferred here this month - you don't share any classes so that's probably why you don't know him. Well, that and the fact that you always have your nose in a book” she paused dramatically. “Though he must know you considering he can only enter the dreams of people he's seen in real life, apparently” she eyed Regen, an eyebrow raised. “I'm guessing that's what happened? He entered a dream of yours?”. Regen nodded reluctantly. Just then the school bell rang, the students out on the courtyard rushed to get inside. “His name is Brahm. Brahm Saleh” Fatima called before floating upwards towards the open window that led to the assembly hall on the second floor of the school building. “Brahm Saleh” said Regen to herself in the rapidly emptying courtyard, before she too rushed into the building.

 Between assembly and her first few classes, Regen briefly forgot about Brahm Saleh. It was during lunch hour when Fatima tapped her on the shoulder as she floated past. As soon as she got Regen’s attention she pointed off to the open window across the room. Bram Saleh sat on the window ledge, peeling an orange, he was looking directly at them. With a dimpled smile he tilted his head at Regen before turning back to look out the window. “Looks like he's expecting you” Fatima waggled her eyebrows before floating away to join her friends. Regen was almost sure they would be watching her but she decided it would be best to just ignore them. She deposited her library book into her lunch bag then swung the strap over her shoulder before she stood up from her table purposefully and walked to the window. Brahm didn't look up immediately, instead, he stared out at the sparse clouds for a few seconds. When he finally turned to Regen with a crooked smile, he held out half of an orange to her. “Sit”. She did, then she started talking.

“I dreamt that I was walking through this playground, one I used to go to when I was a kid, before my family moved,” she began. “And it had snowed, like, the ground was covered with it. And I don't even know how I knew it was the playground because-” she paused, shut her eyes and held her forefinger and thumb to the bridge of her nose as she collected her thoughts. “The red slide and swings weren't even there? I don't know if you've seen the park before” she paused. Brahm nodded that he had. Regen raised her eyebrows but continued. “I knew I was in the park without having to actually see the playground, if that makes sense. And there were these giant red flowers in the middle of the park, I feel like I know what they're called but I can't put my finger on them?” she frowned. “Hibiscus” Brahm suggested, no, he told her, confirmed it. “Yeah that's the one" Regen widened her eyes in recognition, she felt like she was getting more and more animated as time went on but she didn't know why and she couldn't slow down. It felt like running down a steep hill and not being able to stop for fear of falling. “The flowers, the hibiscus, were as big as houses, I remember wondering how they were so fresh and alive looking while lying like that in the snow? I didn't even see anything weird about how big they were, and” she paused, finally slowing down. “And ?” Brahm pressed. “And you were there and you were laughing”. He smiled, dimples popping though there was a sad pull to his hazel eyes. They were the same dimples Regen had seen in her dream. “I was” . He didn't say it as a question but as a statement, a confirmation.

 “I'm Brahm Saleh. It's great to-" he paused and seemed to be gathering himself before he spoke again." It's great to finally meet you - Regen Jansen”. Regen raised her eyebrows, but took his raised hand in hers with her hand that wasn't holding her orange half, a flash of electricity went off between their hands, like static, or rather, like a tiny flash of lightning. Regen pulled her hand back abruptly. Brahm just smiled causing his dimples to pop again. “So you have weather related powers, am I right?” he asked. Swinging his legs over the side of the window so that he sat with his feet dangling out the window of the four story building. He patted the spot beside him where his legs had been resting just a moment ago. Regen sat next to him, her feet firmly planted inside the building so that they sat beside each other facing opposite directions. “No. I don't have any powers. Not really” she hesitated, plucking apart the segments of her orange half.”Sometimes I can predict when it's going to rain or cause little gusts of air but my specialist just says it's some genetic residue from previous generations”. Brahm looked out the window pensively. “So it's like that, huh?” he said to himself mournfully. Before Regen could ask him what he meant by that he spoke again. “So you're part of the one percent of this school that doesn't have powers?” he asked though his tone made it clear it was rhetorical. Regen shrugged “so what about you? Dream related powers, right?”.Brahm tilted his head from side to side. “Kind of. It's a bit complicated, my power”. Regen picked at her orange half “tell me how it works and why I've been seeing you in my dreams for months. And why the snow didn't disappear last night”. Brahm looked at her. “What do you mean about the snow? And how long exactly have you been having that dream?”. Regen rolled her eyes “I asked you first”. Brahm smiled mysteriously. “Humour me, Regen”. Something in his expression compelled her to speak.

 “For the past six months I've been having that dream once a month. I always wake up with snow on my pillow but it fades within a few seconds and disappears without a trace. It didn't last night though”. She fingered the end of her damp ponytail uncomfortably. When Brahm stayed quiet she spoke again “did the snow stay because it's the first month since you moved here?”. Brahm raised his eyebrows in surprise “something like that, yeah” he seemed surprised at the revelation. “So you can put dreams into peoples minds and if you're nearby they leave a lasting effect? That’s one I've never heard before” Regen said dismissively. She raised an orange segment to her lips before returning it to her open hand. “What I can't seem to figure out is why me? Why give me, of all people, these weird dreams for half a year?”. Brahm shook his head “There's much more to it”. He shot Regen a cautious look before he spoke.

 “I have memory related powers. I can enter people's dreams and take them back to the plane of mutually shared memories”. Regen giggled nervously “mutually shared memories? But we’ve never met?”. Brahm avoided her gaze. “We have though, Regen”. Regen stood up abruptly, facing away from Brahm as she spoke. "You're messing with me and I don't like it" orange juice dripped from between her fingers from the orange half clenched in her fist. "If you enter my dreams again I'll report you for harassment". Brahm watched as she walked away. 

What Brahm hadn't told her about his powers was that he himself could also relive those memories. Instead of projecting it into someone else's dream he could relive it himself in the form of a vivid daydream as long as he closed his eyes. He did it then. 

They were twelve years old, him and Regen, the night they snuck out from their respective homes. They'd arranged the rendezvous earlier over a meal of ripe oranges picked from the tree in Regen’s grandmother's yard. And so they met on the street leading to the park and ran along the sidewalk next to the high school opposite the park. 

They both expected to go to that high school the next year, they'd talked about going there together for years. Neither of them did.

 Once they reached the park they started laughing uncontrollably, doing cartwheels on the damp autumn grass. It was early enough in the season that it wasn't that cold and they could come out in shorts and sweaters. But that night they both came in jeans and hoodies because of another aspect of their plan for the night. 

After a particularly raucous cartwheel Regen spun around and around with outstretched arms as her long dark hair swung around her in an arc. Brahm watched on in awe as it started to snow over the park. The snowfall generated from the sky near Regen and spread out from there towards a few centimetre before the edge of the pavement surrounding the park . Brahm had never been jealous of his friends power. He loved her all the more for it, even though she was so much stronger than him. She blazed brighter than snow in the sun. A blinding light, almost too bright for him to look at. 

As Regen spun faster and faster a thick blanket covered the park until the dull whiteness of the snow in the dark was the only thing visible and even the slides and swings were hidden. Brahm laughed in amazement. Around him and Regen was the only circle in the park not deeply imbedded in snow. Regen stopped spinning and tilted wildly for a second as if she would fall, her eyelids fluttering. Brahm rushed forward and caught her in his arms. With her head leant back on his shoulder and his arms around her waist he lowered them to the ground. "Regen?" he called softly, taking an arm from around her back to pull an orange from his hoodie pocket, leftover from their day camped out in Regen's grandmothers tree. He passed it in front of her nose. After a few seconds her eyelids fluttered open. She reached up and took the fruit from his hand. "You wanted to show me something. You said so earlier" she mumbled in a caricature of alertness. Brahm laughed in relief. "Alright. Look - I've been working on projecting what I can see" he stretched his free hand out in front of him and clenched his eyes shut. Regen still leant heavily against his other arm. As Regen scrutinized the space Brahm pointed at, a faint image appeared in the snow. Regen leant forward, her hand sinking into the snow though she felt none of the cold or wet. "Are those…" she trailed off, the orange dropping from her other hand. The image of two enormous red flowers was being projected onto the snow, as three dimensional as the slides and swings were. They looked as if they'd grown there. "They're the hibiscus flowers we pick at my house" he said, glancing into her face. "The ones I bring you everyday when they're in season". Regen shook her head incredulously. "Brahm...How do they look so fresh in the snow?" was all she could manage to say. Brahm laughed loudly until she joined in. They stayed like that a while longer, in eachothers arms, surrounded by snow, in the presence of those house sized flowers. 

Brahm opened his eyes. It had been five years since then. Since the fallout of that night when the rest of the town had awoken to find the park blanketed in snow. When the grownups had whispered about Regen being too strong for her age and too reckless. About Brahm being a bad influence. Regen had been told to stay inside, to go for all these blood tests and to all these new age doctors. In the few times they'd talked after that night Regen had said she'd been told it was all temporary. That in a few years she'd understand, she'd be stronger and wiser and then they'd stop interfering. Right before she and her family had moved Regen had told Brahm to meet her there. In the future. Where they could be themselves and be together. Brahm swung his legs around until he faced the inside of the building again. 

Regen, the present, older Regen, stared at him from across the cafeteria. She was holding the crumpled orange up to her nose. As her eyes bore into his they flashed something like recognition. A tornado of air rushed around her before traveling towards Brahm. Paper bags and napkins swirled around the room before the breeze reached him and ruffled his hair. Carrying with it the scent of oranges.