******
Jade was standing in the midst of a gold laced, silver streaked, and glowing, swirling mist.
Looking down, she saw she was dressed formally in a floor length white tunic cinched in at her waist with a sparkling, diamond encrusted belt. She saw a shadowy form emerging from within the mists. As it neared, she saw it was Kendis. He was dressed in formal attire also, consisting of an old fashioned white jacket with tails, black silk shirt, black sash, and white trousers with black stripes down each side. His coils of platinum hair swung around his shoulders.
Her heart began pumping furiously, as if it were trying to fly to him and take her along for the ride.
He came to her, his green eyes glowing, his soft lips curved into a tender, welcoming smile. He paused in front of her, gave a slight bow, then reached out and took her hand and clasped her to him.
Music started to play: a lilting waltz, and they began to move with the music, dancing through the glowing mist. They turned and swirled, not wanting the dance to end.
Then the mists began to whisper away, becoming thinner and thinner and Jade realized there was nothing beneath them. They were literally dancing on air.
She clutched at Kendis, frozen in his embrace, terror beating at her until he lifted her face up and gently brought his lips down to hers, and her fear melted away, her heart singing. She knew she was forever safe in his arms.
Jade jerked awake - and dropped two feet to her cot, bouncing on her butt to a sitting position. She gave vent to a small shriek.
“Jade! You okay, girl! Calm down.” Ro plopped down on the bed beside her, wrapping her arms around her.
“But…but - I was floating!” Jade gasped. She felt outraged. That had never happened before, why now?
“Yep, you sure were,” agreed Ro, releasing her when she felt Jade’s tremors easing off. “Kendis sure wuz right about watchin’ you tonight. I wuz comin’ over ta grab you when you dropped like a rock. It’s a good thing you floated up ‘stead of over, or you’d be wearin’ a bruise on your tush tomorrow.”
Jade realized she was in their tent. “How’d I get here?” she asked in confusion. “The last thing I remember is thinking that the ten minutes must be about up that Sparrow said it would take to complete its test.” Then she remembered how sleepy she’d gotten.
She slapped her hand to her forehead. “Oh, no! I fell asleep in Sparrow’s tent! It was testing me for levitation…” she trailed off, startled. “Oh! Um, well, I guess the question is pretty moot now, huh?”
Ro looked at her friend and started giggling. Jade couldn’t help it, she started giggling, too.
“Well,” she said, when she could finally get a word out without going into paroxysms of giggles, “I guess Sparrow was right after all. It was pretty sure anyway and just tested me so I would quit doubting. I guess that sort of opened up my subconscious. Great. Now I’m levitating in my sleep.” She slid off the cot.
“Question remains though - can I do it while I’m awake?” she muttered. Her chest fluttered nervously at the thought. She would have to find that out some other time. She certainly wasn’t going to try it tonight.
“Ro, how’d I get here to the tent?” she asked again, rubbing her eyes and yawning. “Did Sparrow bring me?”
“Nah, Kendis did - and tucked you in, too,” answered Ro, with a grin. “Remember, I said he tol’ me to watch you ta keep you from floatin’ away? But don’t worry, he only took your boots off,” she added with a chuckle as Jade looked down with horror at herself.
She was wearing nothing but her underwear.
“I gotcha clothes off after Kendis and Alex left. I’m sorry, I guess I din’t tuck you back in as tight as he had. I’m guessin’ that’s why you floated up. The covers came loose.”
Jade sighed with relief. She grabbed her pack from the corner dragging it over to her cot. She started digging for her toiletries and her bathrobe. She found her comb and quickly picked her cornrows loose.
“I’ve got to have a shower. I feel sticky and grubby and my hair needs washing. I’ll make it short and be right back.”
She took her toothbrush, her bathrobe and towel, and headed out the tent for the camp showers next to the hover-cart.
“Take your time,” Ro called as she went out, “You been sleep for almost two hours, and we already had our showers.”
She grinned. She’d taken hers with Alex. She settled down on her cot with a magazine to wait for Jade to come back.
She was back in fifteen minutes, hair wrapped in a towel, bathrobe clinging damply to her thin body. She had passed Kendis’ tent on her way to the shower and suddenly, she remembered the dream she had been having before she’d rudely awakened herself.
There was a light on in his tent but she didn’t dare stop to say anything to him. She was afraid she would do or say something really stupid, like maybe grab him and kiss those soft lips she had dreamed of. She had hurried on by.
She went in and flopped down on her cot, staring up at the top of the tent. “Ro, what do you think of Kendis,” she asked.
Ro glanced up from her magazine. “Whaddaya mean? I think he’s a nice guy - or at least he wuz when we worked together a while back.” She sat up, gazing speculatively at Jade. “Why? Do you kinda like him?” She grinned.
She would be happy if Jade did find someone to have a real interest in. She had been fixing her up with guys for months and Jade had been going out with the guy she’d met at a baric ball game, Reece, for a while, but she had the feeling things hadn’t worked out between them. And Kendis was a nice guy.
Jade grew quiet, then admitted with a sigh, “Yeah, I do. But I think he only sees me as Alex’s little sister,” she added sadly. She sat up, unwrapping the towel from her head and tossing it into a corner. She picked her comb up off the small table between their cots and started sectioning her hair off.
Ro watched her steadily. “Well, didja say anything ta him? Let’im know you’re interested or anything?”
“Um, no. But he hasn’t said anything to me either. Well, I mean, he’s been very nice to me and it was sweet of him to carry me when I fell asleep, and he did help me get up that ladder today but those are things you would do for, say, your little sister or your friends’ little sister.”
She stopped combing her hair and looked at Ro. “Ordinarily, I would say something to him but things have been so strange today.”
Ro eyed her. Alex thought she should tell Jade about her previous relationship with Kendis - not that it had ever amounted to much, they had wound up being just friends, but if Jade was that interested in him, better she heard it now rather than later. So she told her.
Jade looked at her uneasily. “Um, maybe he still likes you like that, Ro. I know you and Alex are together now, and Kendis knows that too. Maybe he’s just too nice to try to come between you and Alex because Alex is his friend?”
She swallowed. Her heart felt heavy.
“Not a chance!” exclaimed Ro. “Believe me, if Kendis felt that way he woulda said so. Nah, we long ago decided we’s just friends.”
Kendis wasn’t shy about asking for what he wanted either, but she decided she didn’t need to add that part. Anyway, she had a strong feeling he was interested in Jade. She just couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t said anything to her yet.
Hmm, maybe he thought Alex might object? Well, as soon as she got the chance she would disabuse him of that.
She thought about what Jade had said about him treating her like a little sister, and said, “Hah! We haven’t been seein’ th’ same thing, Jade, ‘cause I swear to ya: th’ looks Kendis been throwin’ your way? din’t look at all “brotherly” to me.”
She grinned and threw her magazine under her cot. “But you’re right, this has been a strange day. However, tomorrow’ll be a new day and we’s supposed to be gittin’ an early start.”
She dragged a chair over. “Plunk your narrow bottom here and lemme he’p you wit’
that hair so's we can git ta bed.”
Jade thought about Ro and Kendis together - three years ago. Her heart lifted. That was well before her time and if Alex was okay with it, then she couldn’t see where she should be upset. Besides, he hadn’t said anything to her anyway.
No matter what Ro said about that, she didn’t believe he was interested in her in any way other than as his friend’s little sister.
She sat down in the chair glad to have the help with her hair. They finished up, chatting back and forth about guys, the latest song from Bolo, the meaning of life, shoes, and a lot of nothing, as young females, no matter how evolved they are, have done probably since the dawn of time.
Ro tucked the covers tightly back around Jade, got into her cot and turned out the lights.
Before she sank all the way down, Jade sleepily sent Tally a “good night” and right as she was sliding all the way out, she heard his very groggy,