Through the Shadows (17 page)

Nothing diaphanous there; it felt solid, real—manly.

“Well, I guess I should be grateful I still have all my clothes on.”

The look of utter shock on his chiseled face would have been funny if the entire situation wasn’t something straight out of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

“Victoria! I can’t believe you’d even consider that I’d…”

“Oh, keep your pantaloons on, I was kidding. It’s something I do when I’m nervous or scared.”

“Madame, I assure you, I don’t wear pantaloons.”

Tori touched the power button on a small radio she kept on top of her dresser. He may not like the sound of the music, but the bathroom was just on the other side of the thin wall separating it from her bedroom.

The tragic loss of the night before threatened to assault her heart, which would have crippled her to the point of unreasonableness. She took several deep breaths, promised herself she’d allow herself to deal with it later. She then blushed as she flushed, washed her hands, and walked quickly to the kitchen to lean against the wall, gulping air.

What the crap is going on here? Am I no longer able to separate reality from fantasy? Have I finally, at long last, checked into the Rubber Ramada where all the mattresses are nailed to the walls? It’s simply impossible that a fictional man, one created in my imagination, has been skulking in the background, then stepped through the shadows, slowly taking solid form! O God, I wonder if I can find a therapist who will take me in immediately.

She pulled a knife from the butcher block on the counter, held it at her side as she walked back into the bedroom. Bobby Darin’s hit “Dream Lover” was playing on the radio and she found Avery grinning at her as he listened to the song.

“I remember the night you sang this while you were holding some sort of brown paper tube in your hand…”

She raised an eyebrow at him and killed the power of the radio as she came back into the room.

Okay, I have enough to worry about to not remember that I was probably singing right before I got into the tub, which means I was nude. O God…

She nestled in the middle of the bed, knees bent, and legs across each other.

“Okay, tell me.”

Avery took her hand in his and Tori quickly pulled free of his grasp.

“Don’t touch me. Just tell me.”

He smiled and the deep dimples at his cheek elicited a small gasp before she caught it.

Yeah, there ya go, Stupid. Let him know that you’d like to kiss those dimples and…

“Why do you smile so damned much? I don’t have anything to smile about and you’re getting on my last nerve. So tell me how you came ‘to be.’ ”

Even though he’d dropped the smile and no longer held her hand, his pull was strong, magical.

“For you are the magnet and I am the steel.” Oh, for the love of Pete, Tori, stop thinking in song titles!

“I’ve seen you for many months. Not in the way that I see you now, but as if through a deep fog. At first it frightened me, as you can well imagine. I thought you were either a witch, a demon, or a goddess, and I didn’t want to truly find out which.

“I could see your face only, then slowly I could see the rest of your body, walking through the mist. After a bit I could make out some of your speech, some of it hard for me to understand, to know the meaning of it.

“Then you began to come closer, so close I could touch you, or the ghost of you. But whenever you saw me or felt me near you, you ran in fear. I regretted that for all I wanted to do was speak to you, to wipe the tears from your eyes.

“All of a sudden, for some reason, I began to be drawn here, to your world, your time. What I’d felt when I first saw your countenance was nothing compared to the fear I experienced when I came to
this
place.” He gestured with his hand to illustrate the room, the house, the world. “I was filled with wonder and terror.”

“Just like that, you popped into this world? For some weird reason you simply can’t fathom, you busted into this time frame—without knowing how you got here?”

“Yes, that
is
what I am saying.”

“You don’t recognize sarcasm, do you?”

His face was confused, his eyebrows surprised peaks on his forehead.

“Oh, Avery, that’s impossible. That is, if Avery is really your name.”

“What other name would I have, other than the one you gave me?”

Tori’s epiphany was obvious on her face.

“You’re the one who wrote those chapters of the book!”

A bright red crept over his face and he cast his eyes downward, the long dark lashes feathering against his cheeks.

“Yes, it was I. It wasn’t too difficult to work that machine after I watched you do so for several days. You are a good teacher.”

Tori’s jaw muscles were clinched so hard her words came out through her teeth.

“I had no idea I was teaching anyone anything. You actually stood behind me as I worked, you…”

Her eyes once again glared open.

“You’ve been there when I slept, when I took a shower, when I changed my clothes! O my God, you’ve seen everything, you bastard!”

Avery’s hands were moving frantically, his head shaking his negative response, his words pleading with Tori to please stop and listen to him.

“A gentleman would never do what you suggest I’ve done, Victoria!”

“Avery, hello! As you said, I created you and I know I made you a cad, a womanizer. I
know
what you are.”

“No Victoria. That is
your
concept of my character but it’s an untrue one. Now that I’ve gained solidity I make my own decisions, and I’ve decided I don’t much care for the character you created for me.”

“Are you honestly trying to tell me that you’re your own man now, in this time, in this world?”

“That is exactly what I’m telling you. Here and now, I am a gentleman.”

“Oh really? And pray tell, what other sentiments do you have to add?”

“I love you, Victoria. That is my only other sentiment.”

“Avery, that’s preposterous. You’re a fictional person, you don’t exist other than on the pages of a book!”

“How can you stand there, Victoria, look at me, and say that? Am I not solid? Can you not hear my voice, smell my scent…?”

Tori closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. The scent of him was heady and sexy.

He stepped closer and looked into her eyes. She saw the raw desire there. His lips claimed hers and Tori became faint with the feelings that kiss evoked. He released her lips and smiled into her eyes.

“Does not that kiss feel real to you, my love?”

When she could take a deep breath Tori frowned at him.

“Okay, granted I don’t know what’s going on here but I’ll eventually figure it out. If you’re not a full-blown apparition, you’re still… paranormal. So, until then, no terms of endearment and absolutely no physical contact of any kind!”

“I have a theory, if you’d like to hear it, my… Victoria.”

Her sigh was deep and ragged.

“Sure, let’s talk it out. Maybe that’s the only way we’ll figure out the most mystifying thing that’s ever happened to me in my life.”

“It might be best, Victoria, if you would let me tell you, without interruption, how I feel this has happened. We can… how do they say that… rap about it when I’m done.”

Victoria couldn’t stop the grin that refused to be denied.

“Rap about it? You’ve been watching too much TV.”

A frown drew his eyebrows together.

“TV? What is that?”

Tori pointed to the television set across the room.

“Oh! The box with so many different people in it! I haven’t figured that one out just yet. I have so many questions, and not just about the… TV. But, please, tell me one thing, Victoria. Where do all those people go when you turn off the box? I’ve been so worried about them. They’re all so small that I don’t see how they can possibly take care of themselves. At first I was so concerned I couldn’t sleep but then when I watched the box the next day, there all of them were again, and they seemed to be fine. And why do these little women on TV behave so badly? Every day they have another man…” the blush rose from his collar to his forehead, “I just don’t understand so many things.”

“O Lord, you’ve been watching soap operas. No wonder you’re confused.” Tori began to chuckle and then laughed out loud before she could reel it in. “Avery, we have so many problems to work out. Let’s discuss TV, the little people on it, and scantily clad women later, okay?”

The laughter dried on her lips when she realized her amusement at his expense hurt him.

“I have a feeling this is going to be an epic story, the telling of your trip to this era. Why don’t I make us some coffee before we start?”

“Coffee? That’s very kind of you, but do you happen to have any tea?”

Tears jumped to the surface. “You stubborn Brits!” Then she smiled at him to take the sting from her words.

* * *

Avery settled himself into the cushions on the other side of the sofa. His heartbeat had slowed down to a frantic rhythm instead of galloping along at top speed, but all it took to get out of control was for Victoria to come back into the room. He wasn’t sure how this all came about, how he was now able to be seen and heard by her, he only knew he was so happy it had finally happened.

Victoria’s expression was one of expectation and Avery realized she was waiting for him to begin. He forced himself to take a deep breath, made his body appear to be relaxed, and carefully placed his tea cup on the table so that he wouldn’t be betrayed by his trembling hands. He took a deep breath then smiled at her.

“It must have been nearly two years ago when I noticed I was… changing, for want of a better word. In the beginning it was a bit unsettling when I would seem to
black out
. That was a term I learned from your TV. I would seem to wake up without ever having realized I was asleep. At first it was for short periods of time, mere minutes. These spells were to become longer in duration as the months passed.

“When I awoke I had a vague feeling that I had been speaking to someone I didn’t know, at times and in places I wasn’t familiar with. It began to happen with more and more frequency and with each episode the mist would lighten as if the sun were burning it away, and your image would come into focus. Then it became progressively clearer until not only could I plainly see the woman I was trying to speak to, but I could remember every detail of her face when I came back to my senses.

“I grew pallid, so much so that not only was my mother worried, even the villagers expressed concern. At times, I felt weak and out of touch with my body. Then I started fading, truly unable to see my own fingers, then my arms! I was terrified until I realized I could still utilize those extremities, though they were invisible. But it didn’t stop there. There were instances where half my body was translucent. I had to come up with reasons to be away from the village during those times. Had any of the townspeople seen me in that form, not only would it have terrorized them, they would have burned me at the stake!

“Only when you were out of this house could I go back to my land, my time. It was your presence that anchored me to you, to this world. And only when you were sleeping could I write the words that would bring you to me, through the shadows, into the mist, where I waited on the other side, wherever or whatever that place was.”

“Your life, your other relationships—none of that was real in your world?”

His handsome face took on a bright shade of pink. “Yes, Tori, they were real. At least to me they felt as real as I’m sure your life is to you. You’re a wonderful writer and your description of me, my family, my home—you made it all real.”

Tori clicked the ends of her thumb nails together. “The women…?”

“As I said, Victoria, I loathed the character you created for me. It’s why I changed it as soon as possible.”

“Is that why you began writing entire chapters in my book?”

“Certainly because of that but also because my beloved mother was dying and I wanted to ensure I would be by her side when it happened.”

Physical pain struck at Tori’s heart when she remembered the night before; the last time she saw her mother, Lydia, the wreck, the police officer standing there twisting his hat in his hand…

“I’m so sorry, Avery. O God, I’m so sorry I did that to you, hurt you that much!” She began to cry. Avery moved closer and put his arms around her.

“To everything there is a season, my love. Our mothers’ seasons have ended.”

Tori sighed deeply. “Ecclesiastes 3.”

Avery pulled back to look questioningly into her eyes. “No, The Byrds, 1965.”

Tori pulled out of his arms and bent at the waist, laughing so hard she nearly lost her breath. When she could again breathe normally, she wiped the tears, both sad and funny, from her cheeks.

“Now there’s something that I didn’t expect. That’s my favorite decade of music but how did you know that song?”

“I heard it on that box with the flashing lights that you kicked when I took away its power, to get your attention. I like that song.”

Even though she was still smiling, a crease between eyes illustrated her confusion.

“I wonder if you’re merely a visitor here from another realm, brought here by my longing and imagination. Could this be some sort of early onset of dementia?”

Avery reached out and slowly took her hand and placed her palm against his chest.

“Do you not feel a heartbeat? Can you not feel the rhythm of my breathing?” Removing her hand he titled his head and kissed the palm, then kept a firm, but nonthreatening grip, so that Tori could not pull away. “Did you not just feel my lips upon your skin?”

She could feel her own heartbeat picking up speed.

“Yes, all of that’s true, real, but it doesn’t explain what’s happened.”

“Victoria, does it not seem as if each time something hurts you, you’ve sensed me in the background?”

“Yes! All the more reason to believe I’m having some sort of breakdown. I mean, my world starts falling apart, piece by piece, and each time a chunk crumbles, you seemed to become more solid, more real.”