Free Auracle by Gina Rosati Page A

amount of energy if I want to be seen. Maybe I absorbed enough of Rei’s energy tonight just by sitting with him that I materialized without meaning to.
    “Are you sleeping?”
    What does he mean by that? I must look confused because now he looks positively amused. “I thought so. So you won’t remember this conversation tomorrow.”
    Oh, really! I try not to show the surprise on my face. How does he know this? Have I shown up in his room before and had conversations with Rei that I don’t remember?
    I shrug a little. Since I have no voice in this dimension, this conversation will be very one-sided. That’s a small comfort.
    “Is your mom home?” he asks as he resumes his spot on the bed and picks up his guitar.
    I nod.
    “Did she have a good time?” He strums a few random chords, then adjusts one of the pegs a tiny bit. I wait until he looks up to nod.
    “Did you follow Seth and Taylor to the falls today?”
    I pause, not exactly sure how to answer this. It’s not like I can elaborate, so I nod. He just rolls his eyes.
    “I thought so. I tried Seth earlier, but he’s not answering his cell and I don’t think they even have a house phone anymore. Did she give his cell back to him?”
    Um, no. I shake my head, keeping my face as impassive as I possibly can.
    “That figures. He must be livid.”
    Why yes, he is. I nod.
    Rei strums one particular string over and over, adjusting the corresponding peg until he gets the sound he wants, then he strums all the strings together. All the lights but his desk lamp are off, and his eyes are half hidden under shadows and dark hair. “So I always wonder what you’re dreaming about on the nights you show up here,” he muses as the sound of the music fades, “but you can’t tell me now and I know you won’t remember the next day.”
    He looks up and smiles that slow, wide smile. “Or can you remember and you just don’t want to tell me?”
    I have never lied to Rei before tonight. I may not tell him certain truths that I know would lower his opinion of me, but unless the avoidance of a full disclosure is considered a lie, I haven’t deliberately deceived him. Plus, he has been keeping certain truths from me, too. Like the fact that I am one of those people who slips out of their body during a dream and goes gallivanting off to la-la land. And this annoys me almost as much as the fact that I have no freakin’ body!
    “Want to hear your surprise song? You won’t remember any of this, so it will still be a surprise when you hear it later.”
    It seems there are lots of surprises today. I am starting to realize just how little I know about this dimension, even after a dozen years of wandering in and out of it. How did Taylor get into me? Why can’t I get her out? How could Rei see me earlier and all those times he claims I’ve been here while I’m dreaming? Usually, I have to absorb a considerable amount of energy from around me in order to materialize in front of him. When he does see me, I know I appear solid to him, just as solid as when I’m in my body, but I can’t ever remember anyone else seeing me when I’m out here.
    When the song is finished, Rei looks up at me, and I smile and silently clap my hands. I love everything he plays on his acoustic guitar, and he knows this. He smiles a sleepy smile, so I know it’s time to leave. I wave and point to the window.
    “Okay, I’ll see you in the morning,” he whispers as he parks his guitar on the stand beside his bed. “Sweet dreams.”
    For one crazy moment, I want to tell him what’s happened, that Taylor’s dead body is stuck on a branch downstream, that Seth will probably be blamed for her death, that I can’t dream because I can’t sleep because I’m locked out of my body because Taylor has stolen it. And then I imagine the look that will be on his face, because he’ll think this is his fault, and if he had skipped his aikido class, he could have prevented this entire fiasco. I have to get my