Somewhere Else

Chapter 7: Brecker and Winter

Two nights had passed and every time he closed his eyes he saw that fire in his dreams. The flames licked and consumed the entire house it was set ablaze in. If this was an image of his anger, he was worse off than he originally thought. He knew he had problems dealing with that particular emotion but it’d never been quite like this. Every time he got to the end of the dream, he heard a child’s laugh. He knew that laugh as well. Even though he’d never think of Winter doing such a thing, he had to clear his conscience.

After Jane went to work, he made them sandwiches and sat down on the couch alongside the girl. They used the coffee table to put their milk on and he turned the television to cartoons. Hopefully the fluffy giggly images would contradict his macabre questions, keep her from having nightmares all her own. Pulling her into an embrace, he kissed the top of her head before setting the paper plate in her lap.

“Mom never lets me eat and watch television.”

“Gosh, I hope I don’t look like mom to you.”

She laughed. Usually her laughter lifted his spirits and made everything right in the world. Now all he could picture was her standing by the house, laughing as it burned to the ground.

“You know not to ever play with matches, right?”

She took a bite of her sandwich and rolled her eyes, wondering why he was acting so funny any more. Ever since they’d decorated that shopping cart he’d been stranger than normal. Maybe Christmas wasn’t a good time for Brecker.

“Yes. Matches cause fire and fires are bad.”

Even though she’d said the right thing and even though he was positive she didn’t have access to matches or even to his lighters, he didn’t feel any more at ease than he did when he woke up that morning.

“Good girl. Only you can prevent forest fires.”

He tickled her and tried to enjoy the sound of her laugh once more. They ate lunch together without talking, focusing on the cartoons instead. Or at least she focused on the cartoons. He was thinking about checking out a book from the library to see what fire represented in dreams.