Brenda's Dreams
Chapter Four

Brenda yanked down the window shade as fast as she could, but her heart was
pounding in her chest. She turned on the bedroom light, seeing her reflection in
the mirror over the oak-topped dresser, her hazel eyes wide and startled. What
was the matter with her?

Lucy Coe’s voice echoed through her mind. “Oh my gosh!” Lucy had exclaimed
excitably. “Your one of us! Your a sensitive yourself!” Brenda shook her head to
clear it. This was crazy. Of the two twins, Brenda had always had her two feet
planted on the ground while Julia had been the creative one. Julia had been able
to paint landscapes and do just about anything art wise. Brenda’s attempt at
being creative had always had Julia laughing at her.

There had to be someway to convince Julia that the scene she had walked in on
in hers and Sonny’s bedroom had just been a huge misunderstanding.
Especially, now with Julia pregnant and her parents out of the country, they
needed to be close.

The man that she had seen on the beach had nothing to do with Brenda Barrett.
It must just be all the bad things that had happened today. First it had been Lucy
Coe, then it had been Sonny kissing her, and finally Julia’s anger towards her had
made her an emotional wreck. So how was it possible to feel a connection with
another person that she hadn't even met let alone been able to make out his
features in the early light of dawn. Would she even recognize him if she saw
him again?

He, of course, had probably felt nothing. He probably hadn't even seen her
looking at him from the darkened window. She had to put the incident from her
mind just like she had in the past with the dreams. That was until Julia and Lucy
Coe had made her remember them.

Maybe that's what had made her an emotional wreck, remembering the dreams
and being in the house where they had occurred while she was both physically
and mentally drained.

She had read about people in the past having hallucinations that were perfectly
normal, but had been without sleep for days. That on top of her jet lag might
account for what had happened or maybe she had only imagined it happening.
Maybe there hadn't even been a man on the beach.

Brenda turned the light off and slowly raised the shade again. She looked out
over the beach, but it was empty and showed no signs of anyone ever being out
on it. She lowered the shade again and turned towards the bed.

Okay, so she had been seeing things. Maybe if she went to bed and got some
sleep she would be her normal self again. After she woke up then she would
decide what she was going to do about Julia and Sonny.

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

Brenda opened her eyes still caught up in a dream of images that changed form
before she could figure out what they were. She gazed up at the ceiling that
wasn't the one she had been expecting to see. It wasn't the ceiling in her San
Francisco apartment. Yet she had seen this ceiling before. She finally
recognized it as the one in her Grandma Quartermaine’s house in Cape Cod.
Now she remembered, she had driven her last night.

Brenda sat up and yawned. She pulled the covers back and got out of the bed
and walked towards the windows. She pulled the shade up and saw that the late
afternoon sun shinning. The predicted rain had come and gone, but the wind still
continued to blow.

One lone sea gull walked along the water's edge with a single gray wing hunched
as if he was fending off the wind. She glanced along the beach to see if anyone
else was there. It was empty.

As she was dressing in jeans and a T-shirt. She remembered that she hadn't
stopped for groceries and that there was nothing else to eat in the house. So by
the time she had gone shopping and fixed her self something to eat it was
evening. Turning down the heat and opening a few of the window to let the
musty old house air out a little, Brenda pulled on a green jacket she had found in
one of the closets earlier in the day and left to walk along the beach.

She crossed over the low dunes and noticed that the wind had died down a little,
but the chill of winter coming off of the ocean made her huddle into her jacket
more as she continued down to the water's edge As she approached several of
the gulls looking for food scattered heading north along the beach. One of the
gulls ran along the edge, trying to become airborne, but not succeeding. Brenda
realized that it couldn't fly and noticed that its wing was broke.

That must be the bird I saw earlier that had his wing hunched up against him.
Oh, the poor thing I wonder if anything can be done to fix the wing? She didn't
know if the gull would let her get close enough to help, but she was going to try.
Maybe if she fed it then it would let her get closer. She turns back towards the
house.

Emerging from the house a few minutes later with some bread and meat. She
scanned the beach for the gull, but it was no where to be seen.

“Okay, Larry,” a man with an Australian accent said softly. “Here’s your supper.”

Brenda looked around, seeing nothing in the growing darkness until she finally
spotted blonde hair above a sand dune. She didn’t care much for blondes she
liked dark haired men better. Blondes reminded her of her brother, Ben.

She started to turn away and head back towards the house, but then stopped
because she knew if she didn’t find out if ‘Larry’ was her gull she wouldn't be able
to sleep. She would be too worried about the gull. Moving quietly, she walked up
the dune.

The gull spotted her first, fixing his yellow eyes on her before turning back to stab
at the fish the man had laid out for it. The blonde stranger was crouched down
near the bird, watching the bird eat. He had a slight grin as he watched the bird.

“Keep going, Larry,” he said. “Eat fast or else your mates will come and steal
that from you.

Despite the man being in a crouching position, Brenda could see that he was a tall
man. His shoulders was covered by a faded red sweatshirt. Okay, the gull was in
good hands. She could go back home now she told her self, but she didn’t move
from where she stood.

This must be the man she had seen on the beach last night, but how could she
tell? Maybe if he stood up then she would be able to tell. Brenda cleared her
throat. “Why do you assume the bird’s a he?” She asked.

The man jumped to his feet and then turned to face her. The gull squawked in
fright and flapped away.

“Now see what you have gone and done!” His voice was cold and accusing.

On the front of the man's sweatshirt, The words ‘What I want I get and if you
don’t like it then you can just get out of my way!” was spelled out in black letters.
Those words reminded her of Sonny. Why did she always get stuck with men
like that?

“Your the one that scared the gull when you jumped up, I had nothing to do with
it.” She said matter of factly.

“What do you expect someone to do when you go sneaking up behind them?”

“I wasn't sneaking, I was looking for the gull.”

The man looked around and her she followed his look over to where Larry had
returned and was again eating the fish as fast as he could.

“Apparently Larry, doesn’t scare like you do. Why in the world did you name him
that?”

The man turned to look at her. “Because its short for Larus argentatus, the
herring gull. Is that okay with you?

Brenda took a better look at him. He towered above her. He has to be at least
six foot and his shoulders were broad. His blue/green eyes locked with her hazel
ones and she felt as if they were linked together. Brenda shook her head to
break the link. “Whatever you want to name him is fine with me. I just wanted to
get close enough to see about maybe fixing his broken wing.”

“I’ve gotten close enough to look at it and it looks like that wing has been like that
for a while. I called the local vet to see if anything could be done and the vet said
that there was nothing to be done for a malformed wing.”

“But the gull won’t be able to fly again!” Brenda said sadly.

“Larry’s coping.” The man’s tone was cold and uninterested.

How could she expect him to understand when he was just as insensitive as
Sonny was? She wondered if he was the man she had seen on the beach.
Yes, somehow she knew he was the one she had seen.

How weird, that she would know something like that. She hoped that there were
no other men here to intrude on her privacy. She didn’t think she could handle it.

“Good evening,” she said abruptly and turned toward the house. She didn’t wait
for his response if in fact he had given one.

That's the end of that she told herself. If she saw him again he would be lucky to
get a casual wave from her.

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