Waltz of Her Life

Linda also told him what she wanted in a husband. Someone who would be supportive and caring ("This is a guy we're talking about, right?" he managed to squeeze in at one point). When they were all finished, they just held each other. Seth wanted her to spend the night.

He showed her the luxurious, four-poster bed with inviting linens but her shoulders slumped. "Seth, I couldn't possibly," she said. "I have to get up at four a.m. tomorrow."

"Of course you do," he said, not bothering to hide the tinge of frustration in his voice. They drove silently back to her neighborhood, through winding back streets and around the hairpin turns up the hill to her row house. "Just think about what I said." He walked her up to her door and kissed her.

When his car had rumbled safely away down the sharp turn, she shook her head. "Somebody please rescue me," she said out loud as she walked the rest of the way to her front door.

A couple of nights later, Linda dreamt lucidly. In the dream she found herself in a variation of the path that wound around the lake on the campus at Little Egyptian. The water was blue and sandy bottomed, as if it had been found in the Bahamas somewhere instead of in Southern Illinois. More varieties of trees hung over the gravel paths, including tall oaks, weeping willows and Spanish moss.

Even while she had the dream she started to interpret it and analyze it. She wanted to go back to a simpler time in her life, when all she had to worry about was her grade on the next test or coming up with enough money for rent if her car broke down. Every time she was lucid, she always had to be on the lookout for the same things. Don't stare at anything or even look too long in one place. Don't automatically jump up and try to fly. Don't shout or scream. So far, it was easy. Everyone she passed on the walking trail was unfamiliar, foreign.

The trail led to a clearing, away from the shores of the lake. On the other, driveways led to the Rohr-Lazenby residence halls. Still, she kept walking along, her senses heightened as she gazed all around her at the blues and greens that were always much more vivid than what she remembered.

Linda saw the wild, tousled mane of hair first, then the tall slenderness. She resisted the urge to shout out Lauren's name and run to her. This would break the momentum of the dream. To help things along, Lauren floated to her as if she'd had tiny jet packs mounted on her feet. She held the hand of a small girl dressed in a plain Navy sundress. When they reached her, Linda said "Laure! I can't believe it! How long has it been."