A Brief Moment in TIme (20 page)

Chapter 19

KATE LAY IN Gavin’s arms, listening to the rhythm of his heart, feeling happier than she had in a long, long time. An afternoon of lovemaking had left them both spent, and Gavin had fallen asleep. She was content to stay there forever. She’d found bliss and didn’t want to do anything that might take away from it. Even the basic necessities could wait.

The past two days had taken her from the fleeting dream of a soul mate to the loving arms of a man who was more than her wildest dreams could have conjured. She could hardly believe it. Gavin was a gift from the heavens, yet he was her own creation, a manifestation that had come in response to her vibration, and she to him in the same fashion.

It was a remarkable system—one with no room for error. A person couldn’t receive anything they weren’t a perfect vibrational match to. It was their thoughts, deliberate or otherwise, that determined their vibration, their point of attraction. Kate marveled at the perfection of it.

Gavin stirred and opened his eyes, a smile still evident on his face. Kate was sure the smile hadn’t completely vanished all afternoon, and she was thrilled to be the source of his pleasure and the reason for his joy.

“I must have dozed off,” he yawned.

“I thought we could order in...if you’re hungry,” Kate offered. “It’s after six.”

“We were going to go over the program. I guess we got kind of...sidetracked.”

“A little,” she smiled, thinking of how delicious their lovemaking had been. “I’m not meeting with the warden till Thursday, so I thought maybe we could look at it tomorrow. You know…” Her mind was easily drawn to the specifics of her program. “I think you could have a greater influence with this teaching than I could. The men will be able to relate to you, and once they hear what the program’s done for you…”

“I love how passionate you are about your work,” he interrupted. “It’s what I first noticed about you. You weren’t just selling something; you really believe in it.”

“It’s because I know that people are more than they believe themselves to be,” she explained. “I think that everyone, even so-called criminals, can learn to see themselves in a new way. Maybe that’s why I love the prospect of working in the prison system,” she paused, realizing again her motivation for the particular work she’d chosen. “There’s more room for movement, more opportunity for growth, and more reward in seeing lives changed in an environment like that.”

“I was thinking of something earlier,” Gavin inserted. “You’ve worked with several of the men already, just like you worked with me. You know their situations, their specific needs, as well as their response to your teaching.”

“You’re right!” Kate exclaimed. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I was so focused on the experience I had with you, I totally overlooked the fact that I know those men’s files already. I spent just as much time with them. You know them, too,” she added excitedly. “Maybe together we could tailor the program to suit their needs right from the start.”

They ordered room service and began talking about the other nine men that had been in Kate’s group. Gavin was able to provide additional information, affirming details that Kate had suspected but had no evidence to support.

“Your contribution to the group sessions will be invaluable,” Kate informed him. “The men are going to be skeptical at first, reluctant to share, possibly even rude and disruptive. Having you with me is going to make a big difference.”

“I’m excited to see what effect this program can have on others,” he agreed. “But...how do I explain knowing all this? I mean...I’ve only been out for a matter of weeks, yet I’ve been learning this and applying it for months now.”

“We’ll have to come up with an answer for that one, and probably a few other questions, too,” she replied as the bizarre reality of their unique situation impressed itself on her again.

Gavin seemed to read her thoughts. He moved toward her and she leaned into his embrace. “How can we be sure this is real?” she asked, not really expecting an answer.

“It might not be,” he smiled, holding her close as if she might somehow vanish. “It depends on what definition of
real
you use. I’ve been thinking about that too. If anything is real, love is. If that’s the case, then I know what we have is real, and it can endure anything. It may be the only thing we can count on in this crazy experience called life.”

Gavin’s wisdom astonished her as it had more than once in her dreams. Adele had suggested that he was connected to a higher knowing, and Kate wanted to learn more about his journey. “Gavin, what do you do to maintain the spiritual connection that you have?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you meditate or pray…I mean, is this something that you had a conscious desire to learn about, or has it come to you naturally?”

“Before I met you, I used to spend half the night dreaming—although I was awake,” he clarified. “It was more like daydreaming, my way of escaping. When your sessions started, I realized that your guided meditations weren’t all that much different. Only you took me further than I’d ever gone before.” They both realized the double meaning in what he had just said and began laughing.

“My pleasure,” Kate said, thinking of their unforgettable first time.

“Mine too.” He kissed her hair.

“Did you feel a connection,” she asked, returning to the topic, “when you meditated?”

“It was addictive, even when I did it on my own. It was the only time I felt free, and I couldn’t wait to return to it every night. After I met you, the meditations changed and you became part of them. You were always in my dreams, guiding me.” He smiled at her. “We had amazing adventures.

“Then one night,” he continued, “I was feeling confused, questioning what was happening to me, and I started talking to you...in my mind. I asked you questions and you answered me. After that, I talked to you all the time and learned things from you in my dreams.”

“Is that how you knew what I would be talking about in my sessions? You freaked me out sometimes, bringing something up right before I was about to introduce it.”

“I don’t know. The sessions I experienced were different.” He was quiet for a moment and then asked the question that was on both their minds. “Do you think we’ll ever figure this out?”

Kate wasn’t sure. She’d certainly attempted to sort it out in the past two days. They’d had similar encounters. They’d been a part of each other’s reality, but the differences seemed to indicate that the realities were unique, separate even, yet connected in a way she couldn’t understand. Still, she had to trust her Higher Self. “I believe wisdom comes to us when we ask,” she replied. “We’ll understand this one day.”

“So when I asked for wisdom in my dreams, was it coming from you, or did you represent something bigger, some Greater Knowing we’re all connected to?”

Kate stared at him in awe. “Gavin, that’s it!” she exclaimed. Her inner knowing validated what Gavin had just said, but the understanding was lacking. She sought clarity as she put her thoughts into words. “Maybe that’s what all this represents. We are to each other that greater part of ourselves. It’s the connectedness of all beings epitomized in this unique relationship we’ve created.”

“Wait. You told me that once. I asked who you were, and you told me you represent all that I am and all that I want to be.”

“What else did I say?” Kate laughed. “I want to know what other impressive wisdom I’m spewing as a representative of All that Is.”

Gavin thought for a moment. “You told me that you’re everywhere I am; you’re always with me. You said that my dreams are your dreams, and that my experiences are yours, too. You said that we’re inseparable.…and you explained the reason I chose to go to prison,” he added.

Kate knew the reason. He’d shared it with her on their drive to his parents’ farm—the drive he had no memory of. If he’d told her at the time that he had learned it from her in a dream, she wasn’t sure she would have believed him.

Their lives, their thoughts, their dreams, and their realities had somehow become intertwined. Gavin was such a part of her life and she his that there was no clear line where one left off and the other began. It was a lot to understand and accept.

Kate could feel the truth of it, but she had questions.
If we represent the greater part of each other, it makes sense that our realities would intersect. But why now and never before? Why have I never heard or read of anyone who has experienced similar things? And was our time together just a dream, or was it real?

Gavin had described reality as multidimensional with layers that people can experience consciously or unconsciously. Hindsight had given them a clearer understanding, but in the midst of such an extraordinary experience, it seemed impossible to know what was real and what wasn’t.

Who’s to say this isn’t just another dream?
Kate had to dismiss the thought. It didn’t feel good; it wasn’t serving her. She chose instead to focus on what Gavin had said earlier: Love is real; it may be the only thing that is. And love, she possessed. She had been assured of Gavin’s love, and no matter what happened in the future, she had to trust that nothing could take that away from her.

GAVIN LEFT KATE reluctantly that evening, still awed by what had transpired. He kept telling himself that they had their whole lives ahead of them, but it was hard to be patient when all he wanted was to be with her every second.

He’d invited her to his parents’ farm the next day, and she’d readily accepted. In light of that, he decided to prepare his parents for Kate’s arrival. Inviting the director of the rehabilitation program he was involved with to meet his parents after knowing her only two days might seem a bit sudden. Not only that, but his mom was intuitive; she may very well sense that something was going on between them.

Carol was in the living room, curled up on the sofa, reading, as he walked in. He sat down on the recliner facing her. “How was your day?” she asked.

He would have liked to tell his mom everything. He felt guilty hiding anything from her, especially something so exciting. “It was great,” he responded, trying to apply just the right amount of enthusiasm. “Mom, Kate and I need to go over the program tomorrow, so I invited her here. I hope that’s okay.”

She looked at him with a slight crease in her brow, but responded politely. “Of course, that’s fine, dear.”

He could tell that she already suspected something, and he wasn’t sure what to say. To fill the awkward silence that followed, he began telling her about Kate’s background and the work she was doing.

“Gavin,” she interrupted, looking tentative. “Do you have feelings for Kate?”

“Mmm.” He nodded affirmatively.

“Does she know?”

He nodded again, knowing he couldn’t end the conversation there. “Mom,” he began uneasily, “there’s something I haven’t told you.”

Carol looked at him with surprise and curiosity but remained silent.

“When I was in the infirmary this spring, I had this dream. Only, it was more than just a dream. I met Kate somehow, and I learned from her.

“When I got out and found that none of it had actually happened, I was tempted to write the whole thing off as a weird hallucination or something. But when I started looking into it, I found that she did exist, and she taught the very things that I’d discovered. So I decided to learn all I could. I even hoped to meet her one day, but I never dreamed it would turn out like this.

“I had no idea that she’d be at the prison the other day when I went in to talk to the warden. When she found out that I was familiar with her work and wanted to help out, she invited me to go for coffee. That’s when she told me that she’d had a similar experience. She dreamed about me, too, Mom,” Gavin paused, looking at his mother for acceptance, “...when she was in a coma.

“Something’s happening between us,” he concluded, trying to make his incredible story sound normal. “It’s something we don’t really understand, but we both feel it.”

His mom remained silent, and Gavin was curious to know what she was thinking. It wasn’t the whole truth, but he felt it was as far as he could go and as much as his mom would be able to accept. Now looking at her face he hoped he hadn’t said too much. “I know that sounds strange…”

She shook her head. “What’s strange is that I’ve had a feeling about this. I had a dream awhile back about you and a woman you’d met. It’s funny...you brought her home here, and as soon as we met her we knew—both your father and I—we just knew she was right for you.”

Gavin was elated, but he had to ask, “So you don’t think it’s odd? The dreams we’ve had and how we feel about each other…so soon?”

“God works in mysterious ways,” Carol smiled. “It’s best not to question it. You know how you feel. You can trust that to guide you.”

Gavin went to bed that night feeling as though his life was being perfectly orchestrated. It filled him with a bubbling sense of euphoria and an invincibility, the like he’d never known. He could be or do or have anything. Although he didn’t have lofty dreams and ambitions, those that he did have were unfolding perfectly. It caused him to think about what else he wanted in life.