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Dreaming the Future (Hourglass Tales)

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Tales by Infinite-Worlds

When I started to tell Ben about the girl, he seemed a bit nervous. At first I thought it was because he wasn’t comfortable with a stranger staying at our place. After all, who would be. But that wasn’t it.

“You’re antsy, dear. If you don’t want her to stay, tell me. We’ll figure something out.”

“It’s not that I don’t want her to stay. She’ll be fine. That’s not the problem.”

“Well, what is?”

There was a pause while he considered his answer.

“The thing is, I already knew she was coming.”

“What?”

“I saw her at our place in a dream. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to think I was dreaming about other women. I don’t want you to think that I’d want anyone else but you.”

“But… how?”

“I don’t know. It just happens sometimes. I knew you before we ever met.”

I thought about that. Then I thought about telling him my own secret. Then I wondered why he seemed so much calmer now that he’d spat it out, and why he expected me to believe him so readily. I opened my mouth to ask, and he spoke first.

“I already know you can go into the past, Hourglass.”

“Hourglass? Where’d you get that? And how did you know that? I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you for ages.”

“I dreamed it. And I dreamed your pseudonym, too. You won’t believe who it comes from.”

“Didn’t it just come from you?”

“Yeah, technically, but I didn’t get it from nowhere. I saw it in the future. Someone else called you that before me, or after, whatever.”

His calm acceptance was one of the reasons I loved him, but sometimes I really couldn’t understand it. It seemed surreal, but then, so was the rest of my world, and that was normal by comparison.

“Back to the matter at hand. We have a guest.”

“Oh, shit! I told her she could come over tonight!”

“Relax. I left the key under the mat for her. I dreamed she looked for it there and found it, so I know she gets it. But we still need to talk about it.”

“I told her she could stay in the downstairs guest bedroom.”

“Sounds good. That way we don’t have to share a bathroom.”

“Good point. I just figured she’d rather be downstairs since you and I are upstairs.”

“How are we going to help her? She needs a job, and a permanent home, and a family even more. Her own family just chucked her out with the garbage, and I know it’s hurting her.”

“Well, first, you’re going to take her clothes shopping. You went to sears in my dream and found her a nice outfit for job interviews.”

“You saw all that?”

“Not really all that much, actually. I just saw her getting the key and then later putting the outfit on the guest bed with the tags still on.”

“Oh. I guess you’re power’s not that different from mine. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? It would have made telling you much easier.”

“I don’t know. I guess you just never needed to know until now, and I’ve certainly never dreamed anything before this point in time in which you did know.”

“How much can you tell me about our future. Do we ever actually get married?”

“Spoilers. You like surprises; I should know. What I can tell you is that we make it together, so you don’t have to worry about all the what-ifs.”

“You know about that?”

“You kinda make it obvious, but the faces you make are so cute I never want to tell you at the time.”

I sighed, exasperated and a little amused, and made an exaggerated expression. He fell backward in his chair, laughing.

“We should go. She’ll be settled in by now, and we don’t want to wake her up by arriving too late. I don’t think she had slept much before she found the key.”

“Right. Well, I’m glad this all worked out, but I’m still a little worried. What if she can’t find a job.”

“Oh, she does. I forgot about that one. She works at the art shop down the road. I saw paint on her shirt, next to her name tag.”

“Oh. Well, that makes it easy.”

“Not too easy. She still has to apply elsewhere. We can’t tell her in advance where she’ll be hired, or she get suspicious. You didn’t tell her and not me, did you?”

“Of course not! But good point. She does still need to go through the process; it’s part of her life now.”

“It always would have been, you know.”

“I know. I just wish her parents had been more accepting, paid for her college, actually cared about her….”

“She can go to college, you know.”

“Really? How?”

“Same way you did. Skin of her teeth. But this time, you can help her.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting I do her work for her.”

“No. I’m saying you can teach her how to do things herself. She probably doesn’t realize she can apply for financial aid, for example.”

“Would she even qualify? Her parents were well-off, from what I understood, and they don’t disregard that just because your parents refuse to support you. I checked.”

“I know you did, and that’s one of many reasons that I love you.”

“Because my parents didn’t give a shit about me?”

“No. Because you store information away even if you think you don’t need it. I love that about you. You’re curious, and intuitive. It’s nice.”

“Okay, well, that still doesn’t solve anything.”

“She can apply for scholarships.”

I thought about that. It seemed like a good start. From what she’d told me, it seemed like she wasn’t a bad student, and she was dedicated. Those qualities are prized in scholarship applications, and they’d get her far. She may not be able to go to Harvard, but she’d do okay.

We walked in at about ten to see her sprawled out on the guest bed, door open, and clothes disheveled but still on. I tucked her in under an extra quilt and made a mental note to get her some pajamas she’d feel comfortable walking around the house in with Ben around.

Then I turned the light out, closed the door, and went to bed.
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