Doni slipped her little hand into mine as we sat around the white wrought iron café table in the main room of Divine's and sipped pineapple sherbet floats while I talked about my dreams. Angela didn't react. Her expression didn't change, except that maybe that funny little smile, not quite a smirk but an indication that she knew more than anyone else about what was going on... Well, it didn't quite fade, but it wasn't as strong as usual. She didn't ask me any questions, just focused her big blue eyes on me and listened until I ran out of words. Angela had a way of listening that made me think she heard more than anyone said. It would have been a relief not to have mentioned some of the things I had experienced in my nightmares, just pictured them in my mind and have them transfer directly to hers.
I finished my story, and the four of us sat, sipping in comfortable silence, for a few more minutes. Actually, I felt a lot better, like some pressure had been removed. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that having told Angela, I had fulfilled a responsibility I didn't know I had.
That made sense, I realized. Angela and Divine's Emporium were there in Neighborlee to protect it, or us, or maybe... Well, to be honest, sometimes I was sure there were things in our town that had to be contained in our town. So maybe Divine's protected the world from Neighborlee, instead of just the special people, the oddness, being hidden from the world? By telling Angela about my dream, I was helping her to guard us, or guard something else?
"Guardians," Angela murmured. Her little superior smile definitely changed back to a smirk when I flinched at her word, coming so soon on the heels of my thoughts.
Yeah, I could definitely believe Angela read minds.
"Bethany, would you and Doni go upstairs and get one of my moonlight journals from the chest in my bedroom?" Angela reached inside the neck of her dress and drew out a thin silver chain with a long, crystalline skeleton key hanging from it, and handed chain and key to Bethany.
As the two of them held hands and hurried out of the room, heading for the stairs, Angela's smile faded entirely.
"It's real, isn't it?" I whispered. "The things in my dreams." I swallowed hard. "And you don't want Doni to hear what you're going to tell me about fighting it."
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