Page 146 of Secret Squirrel
“You ready, Tiger?”
I laughed. “Seriously? Tiger?”
“What? My dad used to call me that during baseball season,” he said, turning my wheelchair toward the door.
“Yeah, when you were a kid.”
“Hey, if you’re going to act like a child, I’m going to treat you like a child, Tiger.”
“Fuck you,” I said with very little heat.
He sighed heavily. “I can only imagine what the ladies are going to say about this when they see you.”
“What ladies? The only lady I have is Rae.”
“You call her a lady? Fuck, don’t tell her I said that. I don’t really need a kick to the balls.”
“She does that to you? You’re her boss.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to question who’s really in charge.”
* * *
“Oh, shit!” Scottie yelled from the front.
The plane rocked violently, shaking me awake. I rolled my head to the side and stared at Rae as she stood and ran down the aisle. The lights flickered for a few moments, and I saw Lock rush to the back of the plane. Everything moved around me in a blur. I couldn’t figure out if this was real or a dream.
“I got it!”
“No, not that one!”
My head rolled again as I tried to follow the frantic movements. I felt drunk off my ass, but the rocking felt very real. Maybe the doc gave me the wrong medication.
“It was a fucking bird!”
“Are you fucking crazy?”
My eyes slipped closed from the heavy sedation they had me under for the flight. I had the feeling I should be awake, but couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Sounds came rushing back to me and Rae appeared in front of me, jerking my body as I felt something strapped to my chest. I grinned lopsidedly at her. Damn, I loved it that she was in my dreams, though I could do without the weird feeling of rocking. I couldn’t put my finger on where I was or how I got there, but it was a dream, so it didn’t matter.
I was jerked to a standing position and then Cash was there. That fucker needed to stay out of my dream. I pushed off his chest and everything went black again.
My body felt like it was floating. It was weird, like when I had that dream about needing to pee, and then woke up with the urgent need to get my ass out of bed before I pissed all over myself. It actually happened once when I was passed out after a long shift. Not that I would tell anyone that. But this was different. There was wind in this dream. I could actually feel it on my face. It was cold and slapped me in the face like a wet cloth. I grimaced, then nearly threw up in my dream when it felt like I was falling down a rabbit hole. And then everything went dark.
My body jerked and my eyes opened blearily. Wind still whipped around me as I stared out at the bright sky. It was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. And then I looked down and promptly freaked the fuck out.
“Holy shit!” There was nothing beneath me. I was floating to the ground that was quickly coming up to meet me. My body was shaking with the adrenaline rush and I started wiggling, like I could stop myself from crashing to the earth.
“Stop moving!” Cash snapped.
“What the fuck is going on?” I shouted, then sucked in a lungful of air that felt like it was going to make my lungs burst. “Holy shit. This isn’t happening!”
“It’s happening,” Cash said.
“No, it’s not,” I retorted, shaking my head. I blinked hard, flicking my eyes open, thinking I would see something different. It was the same fucking thing. I did it again and again. Then I started screaming. These drugs were going to kill me. I didn’t need a damn heart attack. What was the doctor thinking, giving me things that would make me hallucinate free falling from the sky?
My heart wouldn’t stop pounding and I was breathing too fast. Black spots filled my vision. I knew I was going to pass out. If only there was a way to wake myself up and remind myself it was just a dream. My eyes rolled back and I felt my head flop just before I passed out.