Suddenly Psychic (Glimmer Lake #1)(13)

Monica Velasquez was not tired. Not even a little. But that didn’t stop her from keeping her eyes closed and pretending she was. It was a tactic the mother of four had used often in the twenty-six years since her oldest son had been born.

If you couldn’t find real sleep, fake it on the off chance they’d leave you alone.

If she kept her eyes closed, maybe she would dream again. In the watery, sporadic dreams she’d experienced since waking up, she’d seen beautiful things.

She’d been back with Gil, walking down the dirt road behind their house. He’d been teasing her that he was growing a beard since she wasn’t there to demand he shave his stubble. He’d kissed her, and it had been the same warm thrill she remembered.

She’d been dreaming about her oldest, Jake. Only in her dream, he’d been telling her about a girl he’d fallen in love with and Monica was ecstatic. She loved this new girl, and she was so happy.

Sylvia was walking across a stage, graduating with honors.

Samuel and Caleb flashed in and out. Caleb had a beard. Samuel was talking about a new job. All her kids were in her dreams, but they were never with Gilbert. She didn’t know what that was about.

“Mrs. Velasquez?” Monica felt a hand on her shoulder. “Mrs. Velasquez?”

She forced her eyes open, and there was a white halo around the edges of her vision. “Hmm?”

“Mrs. Velasquez, I need to take your blood pressure.”

She opened her eyes fully and saw all the wires and monitors around her. “Oh right.” She forced herself to sit up and remembered her arm was broken. “Ugh,” she groaned. “I’m a mess.”

“You’re actually doing great. Don’t stress.” The nurse slipped the cuff over her nonbroken arm. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I fell in a lake?” She glanced at the two chairs by the window. Jake and Sylvia were sleeping in them. Caleb and Samuel must have gone out to the waiting room. “What time is it?”

“Still pretty early,” the nurse said. “I see your entourage hasn’t left.”

“They won’t until I go home,” Monica said. “Their dad would tell them off if they left me.”

The nurse smiled. “Where’s your husband? Is he out of town?”

“He’s dead.” Because twenty-five years of utter happiness was all she was allowed, apparently. “About six months ago.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” The shocked nurse scrambled to recover. “Your kids must have been really scared when you were brought in.”

“Yeah.” She hadn’t even thought about that. No wonder all the boys had been so clingy. Now she felt bad for wishing a couple of them would go home.

Mom-fail, Monica.

The nurse was writing something on her chart. “You and your friends were so lucky.”

“Yeah.” She frowned. “Wait, how are they? Are they okay? I haven’t heard anything—”

The door creaked open, and Monica spotted Val’s mom. “Marie! How’s Val?”

Marie held her hands out and walked over to Monica. “Asking the same about you, of course.” She saw Monica’s arm. “Does it hurt?”

Everything hurt. Her body hurt. Her head hurt. Her arm hurt. She wanted Gilbert and he was gone, and that hurt too.

She nodded and fought back tears. “Yeah, it hurts. I’ll be okay though. The doctors told Jake that my MRI looked normal and my blood pressure and blood oxygen are good. I don’t remember anything after I lost consciousness, but they said that’s normal.”

“Do you remember waking up in the hospital?”

I wanted to kill myself. I thought about taking sleeping pills after Gil died because I couldn’t imagine my life without him. I thought about the future and there was just… nothing. There was nothing without him.

She remembered everything in the car and nothing after until the dreams came. Nothing lucid until she’d woken in the hospital with her arm in a cast and monitors hooked to what felt like every part of her, and she was still holding on to the dreams.

“It’s strange,” Monica said. “I feel strange. But I’ll be okay. Tell me about Val. How’s Robin?”

“She’s fine. They’re both fine. Robin had a weird scare earlier, but it was just a reaction to being unconscious I think. Something like that. She’s resting now that I managed to see her and tell her about the rest of you girls. Mark took Emma home. I told him Eddie and I would keep an eye on you girls and call if he needed to come back.”

“Do you know how long they’re going to keep us?”

“Oh, sweetie.” Marie put her arms around Monica. “You three drove into a lake and nearly drowned! Don’t be in such a hurry to leave. Let them take care of you for a while.”





Robin drifted in and out of sleep. She could hear voices in the background, but they were mostly nurses. The television was off. She slept for hours, glad to finally have some quiet. The curtains were drawn, and the room was dark when her eyes flickered open.

She saw him sitting in the corner of the room, perched in one of the chairs next to her napping father. Was she dreaming? Was she imagining things? Was this another hallucination, like Dr. Patel had said she could expect?