Brenda's Dreams
Chapter Thirteen

Brenda phoned her sister from Kennedy Airport only to have Julia
hang up as soon as she heard Brenda's voice. When Brenda called
back, Sonny answered.

"How's Julia?" She asked.

"Still acting like a spoiled child." He sounded sulky.

"But is she all right otherwise?"

"I suppose so."

"Okay then, tell her I'll call her when I get back to San Francisco."

"I can't guarantee that she will talk to you. I'm about at the end of my
rope with the ridiculous ways she's carrying on over such a minor
matter."

Minor matter? Brenda rolled her eyes but said no more than goodbye
and hung up.

Sonny was behaving selfishly, which was true to form. As Jax had?
No, she wasn't going to waste energy thinking about Jax.

Brenda sighed. Julia hadn't yet forgiven her...or Sonny, either, from
the sound of it. Served him right, but unfortunately she had to suffer
as well. Of course Julia had been hurt the most, so she could hardly
be blamed for still being angry and upset.

Julia will get over this, she assured herself hopefully. Being at odds
with her sister gave her a curious sense of guilt as well as making her
feel lonely. With their parents still out of the country and her best
friend in Hawaii, there was no one else to pour her troubles into a
sympathetic ear.

She had lost touch with her eastern friends when she moved to San
Francisco. To be honest, she had more or less given them up before
that because Sonny had insisted she be constantly available to him.
Still, that was no excuse for losing touch, it was her own fault she had
been blinded by her feeling for Sonny. She was done with men. To
hell with them!

She would start going out more and enjoying herself. A life that was
all work was no life. Look what it had done to her! She had thrown
herself at the first attractive male she had decided to trust. You
couldn't trust any of them. Why had she been so certain Jax was
different? She had been sure they shared more than a mutual
attraction, that there had been a special bond between them. She
could not have been more wrong.

"Looks like we will have clear weather for the flight," the man sitting
next to her in the waiting room said.

Brenda glanced at him. Dark hair. Pleasant smile. She nodded then
looked away. He reminded her of Sonny. She got up and changed her
seat. She may not be through with men forever but, the way she felt
at the moment, she certainly didn't care to exchange small talk with
any of them today.

************************************************************

Spring flourished in San Francisco. On a Thursday morning, the
week after her return to California, Brenda drove across the Golden
Gate Bridge to L and B records. In addition to her modeling career,
she was also a partner in L and B records. A record company she
owned with her best friend, Lois Aston.

The scent of the ocean blowing through the open windows of her
golden-brown Firebird, made her think of the Cape and Jax. Even
her car had a message associated with it, she thought wryly. Firebird
meant the phoenix, a bird eternally reborn from its own ashes.

While I sit among the ashes of my past like Cinderella before she went
to the ball. The trouble is I thought I had met the prince, until I
discovered he was just another frog. That was really mixing up fairy
tales. Unfortunately, this one does not have the obligatory happy
ending.

Stop feeling sorry for yourself!

Arriving at her destination, Brenda parked her Firebird, grabbed her
purse and entered the building that housed L and B records. Inside,
she smiled at Lois as she set her purse down. Lois was currently on
the phone, most likely talking to one of their many clients. Brenda sat
down on the couch to wait for Lois to end the call.

I am so lucky to have Lois as a friend, she thought to herself. Brenda
had first met Lois Ashton when she first moved to San Francisco. She
had been on a modeling assignment for L Records for a album shoot.
The album shoot had been for a rising star, Eddie Main, who also happened to be Lois’ husband Ned Ashton. Upon being introduced to each other, they had immediately found they shared an instant connection and had instantly become friends. A few months later Lois offered her half of L Records and she had accepted.

L and B Records plus her modeling had kept her pretty busy while she
recuperated from the trauma of Sonny, but that seemed like a simple
recovery compared to the way she felt now. Since she had returned
from the Cape, a pall of loneliness and despair had settled over her
like permanent smog. Work was far from enough to keep her
thoughts from centering on Brian and their time together at the Cape.
She could only hope that her friendship with Lois would help distract
her.

Night after night, her recurring, unpleasant dreams made everything
worse. Brenda raised her chin determinedly. She would not bring
her dreams into her work. She would keep them separate. It was
already bad enough to have them forced on her while she was
helplessly asleep. And Julia still would not talk to her.

Lois finished her call and hung up the phone. She then turned her
attention to Brenda. She noticed that her friend seemed to be lost
thought.

“Brenda, Hey Brenda!” she waved her hand in front of Brenda’s face.
When that didn’t work she placed her hand on Brenda’s shoulder and
shook it, which brought Brenda to the present.

“Hi Lois!” Brenda said with a smile.

“Hello yourself, what were you thinking about just a minute ago?”
Lois said as she sat down next to Brenda on the couch.

“Oh nothing much.”

Lois laughed. “It didn’t look like nothing much to me. Come on tell
me. What you were thinking about?”

Brenda ran her fingers through her hair. “I’d rather not say right
now, but I will tell you at another time. Why don’t you tell me about
your trip to Hawaii with Ned.”

Lois shook her head. “Okay I’ll let it go for now, but when your ready
to talk about it I’m here.”

“Thanks, Lois, I appreciate it.” Brenda said with a sense of relief.
“Now tell me about your trip.”

Lois smiled and preceded to tell Brenda all about her trip.

Thirty minutes later, Lois wrapped up her story. Brenda had laughed
all the way through and now she felt a little better. Whoever had said
laughter was the best medicine was right. She had been right Lois
had distracted her from Jax and the Cape. Even if it had only been
for a little bit.

Brenda and Lois then went on to discuss some L and B business. It
turned out that Lois was going to Los Angeles the next afternoon to
do some business with some hot shot corporate raider. Lois was
going to see this “hot shot” because they wanted to buy a record
company that he had just recently raided.

Two hours later, they finished their discussion and Brenda decided
she better head for home. Brenda stood up and gave Lois a hug and
told her she would see her when she got back from Los Angeles.
Brenda grabbed her purse and walked out to her car. She got in and
drove home.

At home, Brenda made herself some tea before sitting down on the
couch to watch TV. She flipped through some channels before a
program on the Travel channel caught her interest. It was on Lake
Tahoe. She had always wanted to go there. Maybe she needed to take
another trip. A trip to forget the disaster of her last one. I’ll make
reservation tomorrow.

In Lake Tahoe, she would be surrounded by fresh water, not the salt
spray of the Atlantic Ocean. Strange, that her bad dreams this week
had been about that Pacific when she knew the Atlantic so much
better.

And they were also about Jax. She and Jax were splashing through
the surf hand in hand, then plunging into the waves, letting go of one
another and swimming out and out into the blue-green water. She
kept sight of his head, blonde hair darkened by the water, and felt
reassured by his nearness. Then, suddenly he was gone. He was
under the water and she dived to seek him.

Seaweed clutched at her legs with slimy tentacles, and she realized
she had ventured too close to a bed of giant kelp. Where was Jax?
Trapped and helpless amid the kelp? She had tried to call his name
but only bubbles came from her mouth. She swam desperately
among the rubbery fronds in a twilight world of green gloom,
searching, searching.

Soon she was lost in an underwater kelp forest. She couldn’t find Jax;
she couldn’t even find her own way back to safety. Seaweed tangled
around her, holding her prisoner. Jax was lost, she was lost, and they
would never find one another again...

A ringing sound echoed through her apartment, caught in the
remembered pain of the dream, it took Brenda a few minutes to
register the fact that her phone was ringing. She picked it up and
muttered a greeting.

“Brenda, Its Lois. I need a HUGE favor.”

“What do you need?”

Lois paused a minute before answering. “Would you take that
meeting for me in Los Angeles tomorrow? Ned has a concert in
Detroit at Joe Louis Arena and wants he me to go with him. Please,
Brenda.”

“Sure, Lois I’ll go to Los Angeles for you.” Brenda answered a minute
later, after quickly thinking about it. It didn’t matter whether she
went Lake Tahoe or Los Angeles, just as long as she got away
somewhere.

“Great. I’ll fax you all the information you’ll need for the trip. I really
appreciate this, Brenda.”

“No problem, Lois. Just have fun in Detroit and don’t worry about a
thing.”

“Thanks again, Brenda.” Lois said and hung up.

Brenda replaced the phone and walked into her bedroom. She pulled
out her suitcase and started packing for her trip to Los Angeles. The
phone on her fax machine rang and she went back to the living room
to see what the trip entailed.

She picked up the paper and scanned it briefly. Her flight left SFO at
8 AM and arrived at LAX at 10:30 AM. She would pick up her tickets
at the counter. When she arrived in Los Angeles, she was to rent a car
and drive downtown for a meeting at 2 PM with the corporate raider,
a Mr. J. Jacks. It then gave directions to his office.

Brenda sighed as she looked at the cooperate raider’s last name.
Jacks. It reminded her again of Jax. Would she ever be able to get
him out of her mind? She didn’t know, but she was certainly going to
try.

She shook her head and returned to her bedroom to finish packing.

***********************************************************

Brenda arrived in Los Angeles on time and by the time she found her
luggage and rented a car it was almost noon. She looked at the paper
containing directions to Mr. Jack’s office and headed downtown.

It was almost two by the time she pulled into the underground
parking garage under the building where Mr. Jack’s office was
located. She was cutting it really close. She grabbed her purse and
locked the car and headed for the elevator. She stepped inside and
pushed the button for the floor she needed.

Brenda stepped off the elevator and made her way down a long
corridor towards a reception area. She gave her name to the
receptionist and explained that she was here in place of Lois Ashton.

The receptionist stood up. “I’ll tell Mr. Jack’s your here. Wait here.”

The receptionist walked over to a door marked “Private” and
knocked, then she opened the door and went in. She came out a
minute later. “Go ahead and go in, Mr. Jack’s is currently on the
phone. He’ll be done in a minute.”

“Thank you.” Brenda said and walked past the receptionist into the
office and closed the doors. She glanced around the room briefly.
The walls were a light tan color and covered with various pictures of
the ocean. The office furniture was oak and the chairs and couches
were leather. A few glass tables were scattered around the office.
There was also a magnificent view of downtown Los Angeles.

A man was sitting behind the desk, facing away from the doorway,
towards the window. She couldn’t see much of him except for the top
of his blonde head. Then she heard his voice as he spoke into the
phone. He spoke with an Australian accent. His voice sounded so
familiar to her for some reason. Where had she heard it?

Mr. Jacks finished his phone call and then turned the chair to face
her.

Brenda’s jaw dropped to her knees.

“What in the world are you doing here.” Jax growled.