Rae looked up from his sketchbook as the door to his and Ghosty’s room creaked open. Athena, with a blanket over his shoulders, and Jamie stood in the doorway.
“Hey, Doc.” Athena whispered, just loud enough for Rae to hear it. “Can we come in?”
Rae nodded, “yeah, of course. Is everything okay?”
“I… had another nightmare.” Jamie admitted.
Suddenly Rae’s sketchbook was forgotten on the bed and the scientist was crossing the room. “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay.”
“I know.” Jamie assured, “It was about the old bunker, so I know it wasn’t real.” Still, they seemed shaken. They had walked in behind Athena, and had lingered in the doorway itself for as little as possible.
“Hey, it’s okay. Dreams can be very realistic.is there anything I could do to help?”
“I don’t know, I don’t want to be inside really, but it’s so dark outside.”
“Jamie?” Caspian had been roused by the conversation, he had sat up but was still clearly tired.
Rae explained the situation in a few words. “Nightmare, bunker.” Then, back to Jamie and Athena, “do you want to go on a walk? Or maybe we could set up some blankets and pillows by the window?”
“Both sounds good? Please?”
—
Rae grabbed a few blankets, Caspian grabbed a bag of food. Athena and Jamie spent a few minutes watching Pickaax swim around. It wasn’t an unfamiliar routine, so Rae and Ghosty worked quickly to gather their things.
Since Jamie started remembering, a slow and painful process, they had come to Rae for comfort multiple times. After connecting with Athena more, they’d both show up in the middle of the night if either of them had bad dreams.
Rae took longer than Caspian to prepare because he wanted to grab an extra thing or two. But Jamie seemed alright for the moment just watching Pickaax in their little pool. “Ready?”
The small group, Athena and Jamie hadn’t remembered enough for Rae to be sure if they were a family again, set out along the lit path that ran through their developing town. They had fun pointing out special places, and telling small tales.
They settled under the tree, a blanket spread out beneath them and more passed around for safety from the nighttime chill. Rae pointed out some constellations, giving short, half forgotten summaries of their legends. Caspian remembered stories of his adventures, and described great monuments and temples that he had seen.
Under the stars and moon, it seemed that nothing could be wrong in the world because for a short time that was true. Nightmares of being trapped, hurt, lost, or hunted were all forgotten and replaced with messy sentences from the mouths of people who were once strangers but sat now as family.
Eventually the spell would fade, but instead of monsters only the darkness of sleep would threaten to creep in on them. With each other’s help, they all made it back to the home they all had a claim to. Although the blankets and pillows were spread around hastily, Athena and Jamie fell fast asleep in the moonlight under the window.
Rae and Caspian did return to bed, but even after the small adventure Rae wasn’t quite ready to sleep. He stared at the mess of pillows and blankets, and the two members of his little family that didn’t remember just yet. Caspian could follow his eyes, but didn’t need to in order to know that that was what Rae was staring at.
“Hey,” he whispered with a smile. “They’re safe, they’re here.”
“Yeah, they are.” Rae wiped away a tear. “I don’t know if I want them to remember everything, Caspian.”
“Thy might,” Caspian admitted. “We’ll still be there for them, whether or not they do.”
“Yeah. Yeah we will.” Rae laid down besides him. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
They both shared a smiled.
“Good night, Rae. I love you.”
“I love you too, Caspian.”
