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Scene #96
As Alex neared Santa Barbara on the coastal highway, her
plan began to gel. Action items raced through her mind at the same
tempo as the patches of vibrant succulents rushing past her window
in a brilliant blur. The shade of twilight magnified their colors,
and demanded her attention as she drove along the cliff-top
highway. Such beauty. The only thing more beautiful to her
would be looking in Matt's eyes and seeing love again. She imagined
what it would be like to meet him face-to-face, and an image came
to her from the last occasion they'd met. His expression filled
with pain, hurt and anger. What if I can't convince him I've been
honest with him all along? What if my showing up in his life again
renews the pain and hurt? Is my plan a waste of time, a grand
mistake? Alex suddenly felt as if she needed some fresh air.
Cracking her window to breathe in the salt sea air, she caught
another glimpse of the sunset beyond the azure waves below. Déjà
vu. She'd felt the rhythms of this two-lane road before, in the
twilight, and at exactly this stretch of road. A funny feeling
started in the pit of her stomach as the same images from last
night's dream flashed into her consciousness. It's only
a coincidence. That stupid dream is only in my imagination. And,
besides, it's done now. I felt that this morning. Done and gone!
Still, needing a distraction to help her shake the
uneasy feelings, Alex turned on the car radio. The station, tuned
into one of her favorite alternative-format stations for Phoenix,
was tuned here to a California oldies station. “Misty Mountain Hop”
blared over the noise of whooshing air streaming through her
cracked window. As she'd realized this morning, only twice
had the Led Zeppelin hit played while she drove along the cliffs.
In the very first dream, and last night. Her heart immediately
began pounding. Warily, she looked in her rear-view
mirror. She was unnerved to see a small red sports car gaining on
her. This cannot be happening. But, looking ahead, she spotted a
white sedan swerving almost off the road on the curve immediately
ahead. Alex didn't have time to think. The cars were
already on her. There was nothing she could do. She closed her eyes
and felt the oncoming car graze her bumper. She was jerked forward
in her seat, and her stomach lurched as the centrifugal force
pulled at her body. Swept into the soft sand on the inside
shoulder, her car spun slowly halfway around and stopped.
Alex pushed unkempt hair out of the way and opened her eyes just in
time to witness the head-on impact of the two other cars. The
inertia carried them both off the cliff, angled nose-to-nose. In an
exact reenactment of last night's dream, they seemed to hover
momentarily against the sunset. A motion picture action-still that
a photographer could only dream of capturing. Then they fell.
She heard the horrible crash as they struck the hillside below
and the inevitable splashing crunch into the ocean. Stunned, Alex
sat along the roadside for several moments trying to make sense of
what had just happened. What does this mean? In a rush, she
realized there were people, or bodies, down there in those cars.
With uncontrollably shaking hands, she was just able to turn off
her car and dig in her purse for her cell phone. She knew she
couldn't be the one to call 911; too much media hoopla with her
involved. Better to let Mad Bo call it in anonymously. Her manager
could handle it better than anyone. But, before Alex could get out
of here, she needed to get her bearings as to the location and
extent of the wreck. Fumbling with the door latch while dialing,
she lurched from the car and crossed the street to peer over the
cliff.
❖❖❖
Alex successfully
snuck down the road to the beachfront Santa Barbara Four Seasons,
found an unobtrusive parking spot and, using her cardkey to enter a
side door, hurried unnoticed to her hotel suite. She closed the
door and leaned hard against it, dropping her luggage, sunglasses
and scarf on the floor. All she could think about was getting into
that hot bath to soak away her frenetic thoughts. A shiver chilled
her spine considering the accident she'd so nearly avoided, not to
mention the potentially disastrous media circus. A
half-hour of soaking and stress-reduction exercises did the trick
and Alex felt more relaxed. Now, with her emotions under control,
she could think through the evening's horrific events. Wrapping her
robe around her, she collapsed on the bed. Looking at the ceiling,
she finally let the thoughts come. Breathing deeply, she
relived the wreck, and its parallel dream, all the way through. Her
recurring dream had prepared her for the event, but Alex realized
dreaming about an extraordinary car wreck and living through it
were absolutely two different animals. The dream told me what was
going to happen, and I've been ignoring it for more than 25 years.
Just like all the other intuitions and dreams dear Suzanne kept
telling me actually meant something. She could not refute their
value now. So, what about her recurring dream about
Matt's cabin, which also started so long ago? It must mean
something, too. Something that now might have everything to do with
her plan to show up in his life again. Something to prove her plan
was not a grand mistake.
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