Chapter 12

                                    

                                          
Morning came too quickly and I woke to the warm sun hitting my face. I opened my eyes, a little panicked that I had slept in but to my relief I had beaten the alarm and woken up early. I'd taken only half of a sleep aid tablet yesterday afternoon and after Dad and I had eaten dinner as soon as he'd gotten home around 7, I trundled off to bed and slept soundly through the night with not one hint of a nightmare. I hopped out of bed and opened the suitcase filled with my clothes. It was still residing on my floor partially due to the fact I hadn't had much alone time of late to sort through my things, but mostly because I was lazy and kind of liked having everything at my feet instead of hidden away in my wardrobe. I pulled out the outfit from my dream, the navy blue skirt and white shirt and headed to the bathroom to get ready. I really thought that I would be dreading this morning more than anything but to my surprise I was almost looking forward to it; I washed my hair, singing as I thought of all of the strange events that had taken place over the past month and especially in the last few days.  
                          
After taking my time blow-drying my hair I applied my make up carefully and got dressed, still humming Gran's lullaby. I knelt down on the ground and felt around under the bed for my high heels, then grabbing my blazer I ran downstairs to the kitchen. I opened the cupboard sifting through the cereal boxes to find what I had up to today been referring to as my last meal, Froot Loops - just enough for one bowl. 
                          
I poured the milk over the cereal and let it sit on the counter soaking while I got the coffee ready. As I flicked the little red light on I remembered I had a houseguest who would also be waiting for his breakfast so I raced toward the living room to pick up Thimble the second. Chirping away on his swing, he turned his cute little face to me as I rushed through into the room. I'd decided to leave him downstairs last night so he wouldn't disturb Dad, though I did hear him tell the bird to shut up a few times when he was trying to listen to the baseball scores on the news. I lifted the cage and took him into the kitchen and sat him on the table in front of me. As I crunched on the half soggy cereal I stared at the little yellow bird. How strange that he would play a part in this nightmare of mine - I would make sure that unlike in my nightmare this little creature wouldn't die in real life. 
                          
I looked down at my watch and quickly jumped up. I'd been daydreaming the morning away and had five minutes before I had to leave. I put my dishes in the sink, filled up my travel mug and opened the freezer to get Dad's meal out for that night. I filed down the box names and broke one free from the bottom of the pack; chicken risotto - perfect. Thank goodness Ben had sent Josh shopping yesterday and re-stocked the freezer. I threw the meal down on the counter, picked up my travel mug, and the canary cage, and tried to balance them both as I hurried to the front door. I put everything on the ground as I rifled through my purse doing one last final check when Willis sauntered over with his head hanging low. I held his little face in my hands and kissed his smooth head. 'I love you, Willis, I really do, if anything happens today you take care of Dad, okay? He needs you puppy.' Willis gave me the same sad puppy dog eyes he always does when I leave and dutifully sat in his position by the front door, seeing me off as I raced down the path to the Dodge. 
                          
As I placed the bird on the seat next to me I took a deep breath and looked around the car; everything looked as it should. I peered through the windshield looking straight ahead at the tree where the man in the cowboy hat always appears but there was nothing there except some grass around its thick trunk in desperate need of trimming. I took one final sip of coffee for Dutch courage and placed the travel mug in the cup holder, giving myself a little pep talk as I put the key into the ignition. 'Come on Evie, just like Rochelle said. You'll be fine Evie, just turn the darn key.' 
                          
I turned the key slowly and the engine roared to life - so far so good. I was in the car and not dead yet so everything was going to plan. I turned around to back out of the driveway and as I began slowly creeping down the drive I slammed on the brakes as Josh was sitting on his bike waving at me from behind. I rolled down the window as he rode around the side to meet me. 'Josh, what are you doing here? Go to school!'