While I Was Away(31)

The cabin was trembling and shaking under the awesome power of the storm, but Adele didn't feel anything. She stared at Jones, trying to wrap her brain around his statement.

He can't be a dream. I could never have imagined something as perfect as him.

“So if this is a dream, then if I wake up, it'll all go away?”

“Of course.”

“So you'll go away.”

Jones stood up then. It only took him four strides to reach her. She wanted to shrink away. To keep some distance between them. He was a figment of her imagination, wasn't he? It wasn't right.

Nothing is right, or has been right, or ever will be right again.

“Yes. But ... I don't know how to explain it. When you need me again, you'll find me,” he assured her, gripping her arms. She stared up at him.

“What, like in my dreams?”

“No, Adele.”

Her eyes grew wide.

“When I'm awake?”

“Yes.”

“When? How?”

“You'll know how.”

“Goddamn circles!” she hissed, then she tried to jerk free from him. Jones wasn't having it, though. He was much bigger than her, and he was able to pull her closer, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“I'm sorry. I don't know how to explain it. I can't tell you something you don't already know. Just trust me, and find me again.”

Adele had started out struggling against his hold, but wound up hugging him back. She even gripped his shirt in her hands and clung to him. It felt like the cabin was being lifted off its foundation. Pots and pans and dishes were flying out of the kitchen. The whole building was being flung from the earth, it seemed.

Yet still they clung to each other.

“I'm scared,” Adele whispered.

“Don't be scared. If you stay, we'll lose each other forever. If you go, maybe we'll find each other again.”

“What if I can't find you?”

“Have faith.”

He kissed her then. She wondered if it was wrong, kissing a dream. Something her mind had just made up.

He didn't feel imaginary, though. Everything in that place – in that world she'd created – had always felt a little off to her. A little unreal. But not Jones. Never Jones. Even when she'd thought she was a ghost, just some restless spirit wandering around purgatory, she'd always felt like he was real. His presence had weight, it settled around her soul and kept her tethered to earth.

Because his soul resonates with mine, and that's something even a dream can't do.

Adele kissed him back, and another impressive lightning bolt ripped across the sky, the clap of thunder shattering the windows all together. A howling wind ripped through the cabin, swirling around them, and she was now positive they weren't on the ground anymore.

There is no ground. There is no storm. The only thing real here is you, and this man.

“I believe in you,” she said. “And I'll find you.”

“I believe in you, too,” Jones replied.

The cabin was gently spinning, caught up in the tornado from the Wizard of Oz – the movie had always been a favorite of hers. As had many Disney films. And trips to beaches, and fields full of flowers, and the house she'd grown up in.

All my favorite memories, and I didn't recognize any of them. How will I recognize him?

“You will,” Jones said, startling her for a moment. But then she remembered this was all a dream, so of course he could read her mind. He was a part of her mind.

No, he's your soulmate – that makes him a part of your soul.

“And how will you recognize me?” she asked, pressing her face against his chest. He laughed, and the sound reverberated through his chest and into her head, traveling the length of her spine and warming her body.

“I might not,” he said, then she felt his mouth brush the top of her head. “But my soul will, and that's what's important.”

“I'm going to remember this,” she said, then lost her breath as the wind lifted them off the floor. They were floating in the middle of the room, the cabin spinning around them. “I'm going to remember this place. Your place. Your memory. I'll remember you.”

“Always,” he whispered. “Always remember me, always.”

“Always,” she agreed.

“Adele.”

“Please ...”

“It's time to say goodbye.”

“I can't,” she cried.

“You can,” he assured her. “And you will. Now kiss me.”

She kissed him.

“And say goodbye to me.”

“Goodbye, Jones.”

“And close your eyes.”

She closed her eyes.

“And always, always, remember us.”

“I will. I always will.”

And she always would, she wanted to tell him. She wanted to say so many things to him. Wanted just a few more moments with him. They'd spent lifetimes together, eons, and it wasn't enough. It would never be enough. So she just needed a few more moments. Just one. One single moment.

But there were no more moments.

The storm raged on and the cabin ripped apart and the wind whipped around her and Adele held onto Jones as tightly as she could until ...