Jo: Chapter 3: The Dreams

The morning was a hot dry one with no recollection of the rain ever piercing the dry earth. It was one of those days where even the animals won’t venture outside the cool dens for risk of the sun and the heat. Jo was now seventeen years and it had been three years without a regular rainfall. Three long years of drought, and the rain didn’t seem to be coming back any time soon.

Jo woke with a start, trying hard to not think about her dream. It was so long ago! How could it still be haunting me? She wept silently for a few minutes before she noticed something strange.

She sat up, her eyes still wet and blurry, and she saw Samantha’s bed was empty. Where was she? And why is the light in my room already so bright? And who is making all that noise? Suddenly she understood.

But it can’t be it just can’t. She thought to herself as she tore open her door and ran down the hall to a east-faced window. She saw the sun in the sky, it was nearly midday. It can't be. Jo thought, deeply disturbed for she could not remember a time that she had ever woken up this late in the day before. But that not right is it? She thought again. I used to sleep this late. When I used to live with- she stopped that thought. She wouldn’t allow herself this self-pity. “It only makes you sour.”

“What makes you sour Jo?” she spun on the spot. She had not realized that she had spoken those last words out loud.

“Sleeping in late,” she lied, for she was not up to talking about her dream just yet. “And why didn’t you wake me up earlier Miss Ryanne?”

“I only thought that you deserved a late start for once. Clearly a better reward would have been to wake you up early.”

Jo understood Miss Ryanne’s actions to be out of kindness and accepted the small gift with gratitude. “Well thank you for attempting to reward me, you generosity is kind.”

“Your perception is strange to me Jo!” Miss Ryanne spoke with a slight smile of amusement…or was it curiosity? “As you may or may not remember, tomorrow is Chelah and the Inspector is coming. This place needs to be in tip-top shape.” Miss Ryanne then dismissed Jo to her monthly chores.

Jo always dreaded the Inspectors visits. She was afraid of him, although she did not know why. He was a nice enough man, and always so polite, but whenever he spoke, Jo felt as if she were plunged into an ice cold lake which would not let her swim free.

Jo expected today to be just the same old, dull, intensive cleaning day that came once every month and thought about how she would be letting her mind wander freely all day. But when she reached the corridor that she would be cleaning, she saw Samantha already there. Immediately she remembered that fateful day when she realized that she would not be alone ever again. Jo smiled to herself, remembering how she had felt a slight tab of annoyance that her ritual was to be cut off, but she successfully managed to cover that by telling herself that Samantha was her first and only friend. Now Jo couldn’t imagine surviving this dreadfully dull day without her.

“Good morning Jo!” Samantha's cool calmness drenched Jo’s heart in cold, but the impact of it was far lighter than when Jo first met Samantha, although Jo was still not expecting it. “When I woke up this morning, I was rather board and I was rifling through some papers. I am sorry if I may have invaded your space in any way, but I came across a story that I presume you must have written, although it was only half finished. Well, I read what was there, and I found it very interesting. But I’ve thought of a way to make it even better, if you wanted my opinion.”

A painful thrust of annoyance stabbed at Jo. Half finished stories should not be read by wandering eyes. It took all she had for Jo to stop herself from eliminating Samantha through words. Jo had to forcibly remind herself that Samantha was a friend, and what Jo could say would hurt both Jo’s only friendship and Samantha's feelings. So Jo bit her tongue and simply said “alright then, how could I improve?”

“Oh, it’s not your writing that needs improvement,” Samantha said catching what Jo was feeling. “Oh no! I was just thinking that you should change your antagonists name to Gracey.”

Jo laughed out loud with relief and guilt about her negative feelings towards Samantha only moments before. “How did you know who it was about?”

“Oh come on, if there’s one person that can absolutely get the best of you it is Grace.” Jo couldn’t help but notice that she used Grace’s proper name unlike herself. “And she told me about an argument you two have every time it rains, so I guessed that your story was about her. Did you know that you really hurt her feelings in the pantry the other morning? She told me she was going to apologize to you, but you just stormed out without saying a word.”

Jo felt a little guilt at these words for Jo had been purposefully rude to Grace. But she didn’t have time to dwell on her shortcomings because there was a lot of cleaning to be done.

As the cleaning went on, Jo found her mind drifting to her dream. Try as she might to stop thinking about it, the temptation was too great for Jo, and she dug deep into her memories of her father.

 

***********

The crash below alerted both father and child of the ever nearing danger.

“Jo you have to promise me something now! Promise me that whatever you hear, whatever you see, you will remain completely silent!” Jo could see forlorn tears twinkling in her fathers eyes.

“Daddy, please no-” she pleaded with him she desperately wanted him to hide with her. She knew the consequences otherwise.

“PROMISE ME JO!”

 ***********

 

“Jo! Jo are you alright?” Jo was on the ground with Samantha leaning over her looking very concerned.

“What happened?” she asked as she sat up slowly while looking around herself.

“I don’t know, you were just fine one moment, and then the next moment you collapsed on the floor. Jo you just stay here and I’ll go get Miss Ryanne.”

Although Jo didn’t really want Miss Ryanne to come, she allowed Samantha to pursue her. All Jo could think about was the memory she had just witnessed. This one was different. It was more than the one I remember. What is going on?

Suddenly she could see his face before her, a vivid smile with his dark curls touching his forehead. She could hear now his absurd laugh that could break apart any storm that lingered over Jo’s heart. But he did not laugh that night. The night, which was so long ago, when the men came looking for-

“Jo, can you tell me what happened?” Samantha had returned with Miss Ryanne. They were both looking apprehensively at Jo as if she were something contagious.

Jo stared somewhat vacantly up at Miss Ryanne as if she was mystified by the question that Miss Ryanne posed. Then realizing that Miss Ryanne was asking about the collapse and not the dream, Jo quickly rectified her mistake by standing up promptly, which made her light headed and confused, and voicing that the heat must have gotten the better of her and that she was fine now.

But Miss Ryanne somehow didn’t feel that this was an adequate testimony to what had happened. “Jo I think we ought to call upon Sano. I am forced to presume that your malady is more than just mere heat or exhaustion.”

Jo was barely listening while Sano examined her. Responding hastily only if he asked her questions, and then returning wearily to her musings about her past but never being able to remember any more other than what she had already dreamed.

She barely heard the remedy that Sano relayed towards Miss Ryanne, “She just needs plenty of water and some rest.” But completely missed the diagnosis. “She has a minor case of heat stress and it should be nothing to worry about. It is quite common for girls her age. Really all she needs is to lie down and cool off a bit. But she should not be permitted to continue this vigorous cleaning.” He added with a disapproving glance to the girls that had gathered outside the door. Upon being outwardly noticed they scattered as if they were mice being spied by a cat.

Jo was led back to her room, scarcely aware of Samantha’s calm and gentle hand guiding Jo’s cold and clammy one. Jo realized dimly that she was being placed on her bed and that someone was telling her to lie down. She dimly felt the cool wet cloth being placed on her muggy head. But she heard the clear voice singing out to her. The invariable benign lullaby that her father would sing serenely to lull her to sleep in those long winter nights. Her father-

 

***********

Father and daughter were arguing frantically. Jo did not want him to go. She could not let him do this " she would not!

“Jo please,” he sounded desperate now. “I could not live with myself if anything happened to you. Promise me you won’t let them find you.” A solitary tear streaked down his cheek carrying with him all the love and compassion that he held for his only child, his only love, his only weakness. She couldn’t understand just then, the love a father has for his child, but she accepted his plea nonetheless for her love was remarkable as well.

The father repeated over and over again, “promise me.” The words echoed in Jo’s ears and she willed them to go away, but as they grew fainter and weaker the boundaries she held up against them were no match and she soon broke down. “I promise.” Jo uttered in a small and terrified voice.

He kissed his daughter on the head and placed her in the space concealed in the wall behind her bed. As he left, “I love you” was muttered softly into the room.

***********

 

When she woke up again, later that day, she was only vaguely aware of the tears which clung to her pale and heartbreaking face. She did not even try to press away the feelings of despair this time for she knew they would return. And it was so much easier for her to give into the sadness and pain than it was to set them aside.

If Jo had looked up she would have seen Samantha’s calm, sympathetic, and slightly confused face. If she had listened she would have heard all of the comforting words Samantha uttered into the silent room. If she had been feeling, she would have felt the hug of pure love and friendship that Samantha rested upon Jo’s shoulders. But Jo was too consumed by her grief to be bothered by the short comfortings of another.

If only Jo hadn’t let him go, if she never promised, they would both still be together. It was her fault that he had died, that he was murdered. Jo wept for a long time, but finally she heard Samantha’s soft voice easing Jo’s misery. It was the lullaby still. Jo was able to fallow along with the words of the familiar lullaby in her head as she did when she was very young.

 

“A maiden walking through the woods

Is thinking of her life

Of her family and of the man

To whom she had been wife

 

She went from family and her friends

To find the ones she first had left

‘They’re never coming back for me’

She knew now and she wept

 

They left her here so far away

They left her here behind

She laid down on a mossy rock

She laid down and she died”

 

The lullaby brought Jo back to the present time. She looked up at Samantha and realized for the first time that she was there.

“What are you still doing here?” She wasn’t angry. She was dumbfounded for why anyone would want to take care of her.

Samantha wiped away the tears on Jo’s tear-stricken face. “Jo” She spoke in a calm soothing voice unlike her usual one, for now it was filled with love and pity. “Jo you were very ill. We wanted to make sure that you were alright. Many of the girls have dropped by wishing you their best. Grace should be along soon with some food. I was so scared when you just fell down, I didn’t know what to do.” Jo now discerned hopelessness in her voice.

“Well, I’m alright now I guess.”

“No you’re not! You haven’t eaten since yesterday! I told you, Grace is going to bring some food in here for you to eat. And don’t worry about your chores, they’ve already been taken care of.” Samantha herself seemed on the verge of tears, although neither asked the other what was wrong. There was tenderness in the room which would only bring the girls closer together in friendship.

When the door opened startlingly quick, Jo nearly fell out of bed from fright. Grace was so relieved at seeing Jo awake that she nearly forgot all manor of politeness. “Oh dear Jo!” She cried as she rushed in spilling some of the pees on the floor. She fluently placed the dinner tray on the desk in the room and rushed over to Jo embracing her as if Jo had died and was alive again.

After smothering Jo in fondness and apathy, Grace was forced by her own will to return to the cleaning which should have been Jo’s in the first place.

Jo and Samantha both went to the desk to collect their dinner. This was the one occasion on which you were allowed to eat in a room other than the dining hall, illness. While they were eating, they were often disrupted, as like Grace, many of the girls came rushing into the room to make sure Jo was still alive. This new, unabashed popularity was just as startling to Jo as the door bursting open whenever a girl came in to confirm the rumors of Jo’s unanticipated recovery.

“You’d think the liked me all along.” Jo confessed to Samantha after Kristen left the room in tears of joy. “It’s a little bit funny that whenever someone gets hurt, everyone goes flocking to that person to mend the wound as if they always cared about them, but the moment the healing is complete, no one cares about that person anymore.”

“They’ve always cared about you Jo. It’s not like they hate you, they just aren’t close to you.” But Samantha couldn’t really met Jo’s eyes while she said this, for they both knew that it wasn’t completely true.

 

That night it took Jo an expectedly long time to get to sleep, not only had she slept the whole day, but she was afraid of what she would see when she did finally slip off into the once safe experience of blissful sleep.

 

 

***********

“I love you!” Those were the last words spoken between Jo and her father. Neither of them knew who it was that had spoken yet they both felt it was as much from one to the other as it was to one from the other. As Jo sat silently, crying at her and her father’s wretched fate, she was comforted. Just as James, scared now that his daughter still might be found despite his preparations, was comforted. He descended the stairs to face the intruders, and his doom.

 Although she was hidden upstairs, she could hear everything happening below.

“Where is it James?” a man said in a deep mirthless voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Kent.”

“You don’t want to play that game with me James, you won’t win. Now are you going to tell me where it is? No? I assumed you were just as hard headed as Rustoben but I never thought you were as foolish. Well then Jason, find the girl. I think our friend still needs a little persuasion.”

Jo heard the footsteps climbing the stairs. He sounded frighteningly monstrous and abnormally massive. Jo was terrified to the end of her wits.  She heard this man, Jason, come into her room.

A passion rose up inside of her and she knew that if she gave herself up, she could save her father’s life. But James had made her promise, and that promise was binding Jo to her concealment without regards to her fear, her father’s life, or what she would loose. Her promise would never break by her own force. But he could still find her…

***********

 

By the time that Jo had awoken the next morning, she had already accepted her dream about her father and decided not to let it give rise to tearful agony.

Unlike yesterday, which seemed so long ago to her, Jo woke once again at dawn. She dressed quietly not waking Samantha, and raced outside. The fresh air was already warming against her skin. For the first time in three years, since the last rain, Jo finally felt a peace rising inside her heart. But it was struggling to stay up as she remembered what day it was. Chelah. The Inspector comes today. She thought quietly to herself as the birds sang, without noticing that Jo felt sick with the awfulness of the coming day. It was frightening to think that nothing cared that the world could end in a single man’s voice. Such an awful voice to hear.

Jo could not put her finger on the thing that most terrified her about the Inspector. As far as she knew, the other girls absolutely adored the Inspector. His handsome features, his charming smile, his breathtaking voice… Jo was revolted by the absurdity of it all. How is that he can charm so many girls, but not me?

“You can see past his mask and into his featureless soul, child.”

Jo spun around with infinite delight. “Vene!” she exclaimed unable to conceal her delight. “Oh, it has been a terrible yesterday. Sir, the past has come to haunt me once more. I cannot escape from the life dreams of my younger years when I lived with my father.”

“I know child. The dreams have returned to you so that you may know the truth. The truth of who you are, and who the others are. I wish it were not so, for I have come to love you more dearly than any amount you could have expected. But the truth shall not be delayed much longer, my dear one.”

“Vene I am afraid, I cannot understand why.”

“You will know too soon, parum.” He gave Jo the most gentle of gentle kisses on her forehead and disappeared into the bird sung morning air.

Vene, the one whom Jo loved, many feared, and many did not know. It was He that Miss Ryanne, Grace, and the other girls could not understand. It was He that gave Jo her love of the rain, and it was He who would not lead Jo astray no matter how much she feared the path that lay ahead of her, and she did fear it much now.

The sun was almost cleanly up by the time Jo gathered her senses again. As the birds started to quiet, Jo could hear the faint and restless noises of the orphanage readying itself for the grand coming of the Inspector.

“Jo!” Samantha called out to her from the door way. “Good morning to you my friend. How are you this bright morning?” Jo could tell that she was still shaky from yesterday’s unusual events, but she was glad, nonetheless, to hear her calm steadying voice which, after her gentleness yesterday, no longer seemed disturbing.

Jo was, however, still unwilling to leave the shaded comfort of the weeping willow. Samantha had therefore decided to come and join Jo in the last peaceful moment that morning. The two girls sat in silence for a moment before Samantha willed herself to speak.

“Jo, why do you fear the Inspector? All of the orphanage is in an excited uproar about him, well, all besides you.” She looked inquiringly at Jo’s if she might receive an answer from Jo’s eyes.

“He is the man who comes” she stated simply, pausing before describing in detail how awful that man was. She shook her head, failing to come up with the right words. “Hidden in a mask of beauty that cannot, to me, conceal the wickedness his true nature beholds. He gives no reason to fear him, yet beware! Enemies play fools in dangerous situations when safety proves them otherwise. My friend, I cannot truly say what I really dislike or fear about him, nothing yet gives room for reason, but I know in my heart of hearts that he is not to be trusted!”

Samantha looked more confused than ever at this, for she felt that a simple wrong he had done her would explain it. But Jo’s explanation, somewhat short of a speech, had been neither here nor there. And it had filled her with an unexpected fear of this man, this Inspector.