“I do remember dreaming,” Ben said. “I had really weird dreams, one of them over and over again. The first was about a baby in a dumpster.”
He sat up so fast, he nearly knocked me over. “That was me!”
I pointed at him warningly. “If you call yourself trash, I’m going to—”
“No, Angus,” Ben interrupted. “I saw it all happen. I saw my parents. They had to be my parents. One was crying, and theother was insisting it had to be done. Then he took me out in the snow, wrapped up in something, and put me in a dumpster, saying Fate could decide.”
“Okay, Ben, okay. I get what you’re saying.” I patted his hand, then caught the time on the clock by the bed. 4:17.
“We may as well get up and feed the livestock.”
“I’ll put the coffee on,” Colt said.
We dressed and went out to do our chores. When we got back in, we took our coffee into the living room and sat down with Ben.
“Why do you think that happened to me?” Ben asked.
“No idea,” I said. “Laura thought you were in some kind of protective sleep due to anxiety. Were you freaking out about being away from us? I shouldn’t have let you go over there.”
“I wasn’t, though. I mean, I missed you and felt uncomfortable about it, but I was managing. And when I was with the other omegas, I felt less jittery. But I was tired and fell asleep.”
“You scared us,” I mumbled.
Wrapping his arms around me, Ben said, “I’m sorry, Angus,” and kissed my cheek.
How could I resist that?
Hugging him, I said, “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
Laura walked in from the hall wearing a green robe over her nightgown.
“Ben, I thought I heard your voice!”
“Oh, I’m sorry I woke you,” he said.
“What are you talking about? I’m thrilled you’re awake! You had us worried. How do you feel?”
He seemed to consider, then said, “I feel good. Rested. But I had dreams that were so real, and one of them was about my parents throwing me away.”
“What?” Laura sat down.
“I knew I was found in a dumpster but nothing else. In my dream, my birth father was crying and arguing with my other father, saying if someone was going to do it, it would have to be him. My father said it had to be done because ‘he’ would be so much worse off otherwise.” Ben frowned. “That would mean the baby would be so much worse offalive. Because then he took a bundle out into the cold and walked for a long time. He said that freezing wouldn’t be such a bad way to go, but he wound up putting the bundle in a dumpster to let Fate decide if the baby would freeze or be rescued. Then he ran off.”
“It was just a nightmare, Ben,” Colt said, rubbing Ben’s back.
“No. It was so real. Iknowthose were my parents. I can’t tell you how, I just do. And there’s more. I saw a crowd breaking down a door to a house. They had been yelling for John Waters to hand over someone and the baby.”
“John Waters…” Laura said. “Have you ever heard that name before?”
Ben shook his head. “It was a long time ago, I think.”
“And are you saying you can somehow see the past?” I asked, worried. Was Ben talking out of his head?
Ben shrugged. “I’ve never been able to before. But those were my dreams, and they were unlike any dreams I’ve ever had. Very vivid and clear, like they were real. Like I was standing right there with those people when all that stuff happened.”
“That’s really interesting,” Laura said. “I’ll have to make a note of it. But right now, I’ll get my bag and examine you one more time before I leave, just to make sure you’re okay.”
Colt and I went to finish our morning chores, and when Laura came out of the house fifteen minutes later, she made the “okay” sign with her hand to let us know Ben was all right before getting in the car and leaving.