It was all a dream. But then I guess you already knew that. My eyes stung in the daylight but as my vision slowly returned it dawned on me that I had known it had been a dream all along. When I had been in that hotel talking with Madeline we had both wordlessly guessed. But the whole time it had seemed more than a dream, more real, so real that the fact that I had known it was a dream didn't seem important.
I shouted down to my mother that I was awake and quickly took my notebook from the side of the bed. I wanted to record the details before they vanished in the morning light. I jotted down what I could remember. On the shelf above me was my old teddy bear. This last year he had been demoted from the bed to the shelf. I had grown older and people laugh when a boy my age still sleeps with a teddy. But this morning the teddy made me smile as I remembered the man bear by the bus.
"Make sure you have a good shirt for tonight," my mother called.
I remembered I was to be going to some family get together.
"Your aunt Lilly will be there and you know what she's like if we're late or if you're not dressed correctly."
I was reminded of the Duchess instantly and scribbled down a note or two.
I saw Simon guarding his door at school as ever. In the assembly Rob and Madeline stood next to each other. The hymn we sang seemed oddly to fit the dream and I wondered for a moment if I had not fully woken up.
It's from the old I travel to the new,
Keep me travelling along with you
There was a point where Madeline looked over at me and I swear she recognized me. But I was not about to walk over there and tell her she had been in my dreams last night. That sort of talk could get me a new nickname or two. Yet I wanted to tell someone about the Duchess, Edward and the Elephant Man. I think it was during that school assembly that I decided to tell Mr Huntington. As for my notes? Well my notes eventually ended up with what you are reading now.
My name is Tommy and I believe in the impossible.
That night the sun was setting as I left Mr Huntington’s house. I had told him a little of my story and could see that he did not believe me. But he seemed to want to hear more. Sadly I had needed to leave for the family get together. The stars were out but the air was still quite warm. I looked up wondering how far I had really travelled on that bus during my dream. I walked over the zebra crossing when a vehicle pulled up next to me.
It was a bus, and as I stood illuminated in the light of a single street light the driver opened the bus door.
I stepped back assuming the driver had thought I had waived him down, not daring to think what I thought I was thinking, what I was certain even.
Then I heard that familiar voice and I knew.
"Well are you getting on? I haven't got all day."
Introducing-The Forbidden Window: Hiding From Seagulls Book Two