The Dream of Sight

Valeria ran on silent feet, keeping her back to the wall as much as she could. She paused as the wall turned into a corner, curving around the back side of the house. The solid stone wall towered over her by six feet, and she was considered tall by most. How was she to get in? Thwack! She crouched instinctively, advancing in a crawl to see what had caused the sound-

“Amelia, can you help me please?” Jackson asked

Amelia sighed. Why did people think it was okay to interrupt someone while they read? Didn’t they realize how many crucial moments lived in the pages of her latest book? But she couldn’t ignore her eight-year-old brother while there was no one else to help him. She sighed again and looked up. “What do you want Jackson?” Her irritation was barely concealed in her voice.

“I miscalculated the laundry detergent.”

The innocent way he contorted his young mouth to say those words alerted her of a major cleanup in her future. She pulled herself off her favorite side of the couch and made her way to the laundry room. The faster she dealt with this, the faster she could return to her reading. She was in the middle of a romantasy adventure book and Valeria was just about to infiltrate the head office of the corrupt Grandmaster. She had no supernatural powers, so she would have to rely on her skills. I wonder if she got caught. That would add an unexpected plot twist. She had just finished a book at the crack of dawn and that heroine had managed to escape capture more times than seemed possible. It had been worth the lost hours of sleep though. She made quick work of cleaning the laundry soap off the floor, machine, and foam escaping the sides of the cleaning robot. Their high-tech appliance was supposed to deliver dry and folded items into the laundry basket but trust her inquisitive brother to unlock its crisis-proof settings. Her mind drifted back to the second book on she was reading. It was also a fantasy book by the same author author, a different take on the Rapunzel story. You would think she was tired of reading books inspired by popular fairytales, but some people could just make something old feel like an off-the-rack item in your favorite color. This one had her heroine, Nala, navigate dream worlds searching for the key that would get her out of the tower. Nala had been in the middle of a quest to regain the abilities that would allow her to forge the compass to the key. Amelia was at the point where Nala broke into the maniacal Twins’ basement when her mum called her to help babysit her brother. She lived on campus in her third year of an Architecture degree but came home to help out as often as she could — not much unfortunately. Her single mum worked a lot of night shifts, but thankfully their neighbor was happy to lend a hand.

She made sure her brother was engrossed with a Lego set, then flopped back onto the couch with her book.

Thwack! Valeria crouched low, searching the darkness for the source of the sound. The basement was —

Wait, basement? Amelia flipped a page, checking to make sure she had picked back up at the right spot. Valeria was supposed to be outside a wall, what was she doing in the basement? She read further, face scrunching in confusion. Huh? The sentence before remained the same, but instead of Valeria skulking around a wall, she was now sneaking around a basement.

“Jackson, come here a sec please.”

Jackson remained focused on the half-built airplane in his hand, so Amelia looked up and spoke louder, “Jackson!”

He looked up. “Huh?”

“Come here please?”

He rose slowly, not registering the intensity of his sister’s face. This had happened two nights ago, and the night before, where a book seemed to change directions for a few paragraphs. She had chalked it up to a sleepy brain, but now she wasn’t so sure. As Jackson drew closer, she held out the book to him. He was an avid reader, and there were no mature themes in the book.

“Could you read this page and tell me where Valeria is please?” She indicated the page she was reading when he interrupted her earlier. He looked at her like she was growing another eye but took the book from her while she flicked her nail repeatedly. She squelched the instinct to hurry him.

Finally, he looked up from the page. “It says she is in a basement.”

So, she wasn’t the only one seeing it. She knew for a fact Valeria had been outdoors when she first read that page. She smiled at Jackson. “Thanks.” He shrugged and returned to his perch on the carpeted floor. Amelia turned the book over. The cover was the same. . . But wait! There was another book with a basement. No way! She dragged her multicolored cloth bag from its resting place on the side table and pulled out Nala’s book. Flipping to her bookmark, she read quickly. Nala was outside! They had switched. How. . .?

Rubbing her forehead, Amelia looked at the books in her lap. She had a project to work on and had not done any of it last night (guilty as charged). She placed both books into her bag and pulled out her laptop. Maybe some distance will make this make sense.

She flipped open her device, navigating to her default design software. The project was based on converting an old Brownstone-style house to a creative cooperative workspace. The row of houses took up half a block and she struggled with a plan that would maintain the façade of the house and be functional as an open-floor plan. The established electrical and plumbing locations were not helping either. There were three floors including basement suites with ground floor access doors for each house. She started a rough draft, focusing on the lowest levels first. It was easier to maintain these levels as they were and simply repurpose them. Maybe as storage rooms?

~

Amelia dropped her bag as she wrestled the door closed while holding her laptop. Darkness enveloped her as she felt around for a light switch. Finally, her hand connected with the right spot on the wall and bright rays filled the room. She descended the stairs, moving deeper into the basement, pausing to retrieve her bag from its resting place on the bottom stair. As she straightened, she froze. A young woman, brunette hair peeking from a black beanie, held a dagger in her left hand, ready to launch. Amelia dropped everything again, not caring that she may have broken her laptop. More important was raising her hands to show she was not a threat. She was expecting to see workers clearing out the basement suite of the Brownstone. Not a woman-in-black. Literally, she was dressed head to toe in black. The woman frowned, taking in her non-threatening posture.

“Who are you?” woman in black asked.

“Amelia, I’m here to help with clearing out this space so we can make it a storage room.”

Deeper frown lines lined her face. “How did I get here? How do I leave this place?”

Amelia gave her a baffled look. How was she to know? “I don’t know who you are or how you got here, but the exit is that way.” She pointed up at the door she had walked through moments ago. “Just leave through that door and the backyard is to your left.”

Amelia stepped down, inching her way to make room for the stranger. For some reason she couldn’t explain, she pointed at a ladder resting sideways on the far wall. “Take that with you.”

The strange woman glanced at her for a few seconds, then nodded once, taking the ladder and making her exit.

Amelia reached out to snooze her alarm. She had a few more set and was in no hurry to wake up. Wait, wake up? She sat up, flinging her covers away from her torso, not caring about the cold air. It had been ages since she dreamt so vividly. She groaned; she shouldn’t have worked on her project late into the night. It had featured in her dreams. She shuddered. But who was the strange woman and why did she need a ladder? She reached for her phone and turned off the upcoming alarms. Might as well start the day. Soft light filtered from the sides of her curtains and the giant numbers on her screen read eight o’clock. Lectures started at ten today. She prayed and meditated for a while, then stood to get ready. She needed to take out the recycling before the trucks came. Her cheap apartment block did not have the automatic recycling chutes like her mother’s neighborhood. Living on the ground floor though meant she just had to walk to the back wall where the large recycling bins were kept.

Amelia packed her lunch into her book bag, placing everything by the entrance table, then walked to the kitchen to get the tall red bucket she used as a makeshift bin. She opened the latch on the back door and stepped out, taking a moment to absorb the streams of sunlight pointed her way. The trees were bare, and leaves gathered in piles around the lawn. She made her way to the wall dividing her apartment building from an office complex. A security firm used that building, so they had erected another high fence around it when they moved in two years ago. She lived at the end of the apartment block, so the closest recycling bin was at the edge of the wall on her side. She emptied her bucket into the large open metal container and placed the bucket down when she spotted light reflecting off an object on the floor. She stooped to examine it. It was a metal ring with two objects attached, one was off-yellow, and the other was sliver. They were shaped like keys but were too large to fit into any door she had ever seen. It reminded her of Nala’s quest to find a key. This may fit into the massive tower escape door.

She reached to pick it up when she heard soft footfalls. Looking up, she blinked at the sight before her. A lithe woman, dressed in threadbare clothing that must have been a dress at some point. Her tangled black curls were gathered into a ponytail at the base of neck. She was barefooted — probably why Amelia hadn’t heard her approach.

“Are you okay?” Amelia asked, concerned for the woman.

“You can see me?” Her face showed stark surprise.

“Of course I can see you, you’re standing in front of me.”

The strange woman tilted her head to the side, examining Amelia for a few moments, then she asked, “Where are we?”

“In Edmonton. . .Canada.”

“I’ve never heard such strange names but . . .” Her mouth dropped open. “You must have the reader’s Sight!”

Amelia squinted at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?” But the woman’s attention had shifted to the object in her hands. Before she could question her further, Nala snatched the keys from her hands.

“I must go now, thank you!” She darted around the wall and vanished.

Amelia scrubbed her eyes. What in the tomfoolery. . .?