8. a night of dreams, a morning of nightmares “I requested an S.U.V. for your bike, so we could talk a minute, alone. I could feel that moment of stress in there a few minutes ago when I got off the plane earlier today” Yellow Tiger said to Awishona Ts'uyya, as they loaded her bike in the back. “I could, too” she replied. They got into the back seat together, and the Uber driver drove off. “So it seems The Red Dragon HAS gotten some of Catia’s mana when they fought? Or are we coming into another time of convergences? What are you feeling?” “That’s an awful co-incidence with Lilia and the Dragon Mining company. But I honestly can not see or feel anything as to why. But if The Red Dragon can see the future, we must be extra-cautious. That makes all this feel like a trap” Yellow Tiger responded. “Yea, but if it’s a convergence…” Awishona Ts'uyya smiled hopefully. “Sometimes destructive forces seem to be behind those … and… how can we say that wasn’t a near-miss destruction. It certainly has caused Jazmin and Rafaél and her kids pain.” Yellow Tiger sighed lightly. “You’re right, we don’t know, but we all agree most times it provides opportunity” Awishona Ts'uyya said. “Chaos … The Dragon can gain from that just as much as we can.” “But if The Dragon doesn’t know… we have the advantage. Certainly, the whole situation is bringing us together at a time when the whole world is on edge” Awishona Ts'uyya smiled still hopefully. “Even Violet and Catia are here, but just don’t remember yet.” “Maybe they got a "glimpse" at the "crack of their dawn" and they put their life in motion this direction” replied Yellow Tiger. “Who really knows but them? Maybe they will awaken soon.” She held out her hand, and Yellow Tiger took hold, and they sat there quietly in the back seat riding through New York, circulating their Qi though each-other, grooming each-other’s meridians, clearing out each-other’s slow, congested spots, pushing out the dis-harmonious energy stuck in the corners and crevices of their auras. ================================================ At Leo & Catia’s house, the five new old friends ate dinner, and retired to bed shortly after. Maxine Violet Leffleur slept in the living room on the fold-out sofa-bed. It was, miraculously, comfortable, and she quickly fell into a deep sleep. More so than usual. She always seem to sleep with one eye open, hand ready to grab her gun under her pillow. But this night was not normal. In the wee morning hours before dawn she started vividly dreaming. But it wasn’t like a typical dream. There was no "plot", no "action"; no internal mental desires, concerns, thoughts, joys, or fears were the center stage of her dream. Instead it began with seemingly 1000 faces – people she all felt she knew somehow – appearing one by one; except there was no sense of time and it seemed they all ALSO appeared in the same instant. Then, both an instant later, and an infinite time later, she saw Yellow Tiger. He said “I remember you,” and his words seem to echo throughout her mind, throughout time, endlessly, forever, everywhere, as she saw his eyes looking into hers, again, and again and again, but yet never looking away. Then, both an instant later, and an infinite time later, she dreamed of her 100,000s of past lifetimes, one by one, the plot of each lifetime progressing at the pace of normal time, yet all in the same instant; significant occurrences seemed to stand out and echo throughout time and space itself. Violet woke to her presence in the fold-out bed. She got up and went to the bathroom. Years ago, Catia had dreams all night long, before the accident that crippled her. Since then, they were all but completely gone. Every now-and-then she would remember an image or feeling from a dream she had — last night? last week? — she could never be sure. But this night the dreams returned. She saw Leo — he was standing in a field next to a tree just after dawn with the wind blowing, watching the sunrise. Then she saw Yellow Tiger and Awishona Ts'uyya, along with several other unknown faces that she knew she somehow knew, standing there in the Void, smiling at her; she could feel Leo behind her. She turned around and she was in a grand Palace room — a half-dome with a 200-foot high ceiling. A swimming pool double that of Olympic size was in the middle of the room. A "throne" was perched high on a tower platform at the end of the pool, with a diving board that extended out over the water. There she saw a woman sitting on the throne; a woman she knew from long ago. She called out the woman’s name, but she said thousands of names all at once. The woman looked at her, and the dream faded away, as Catia woke. She heard Violet in the front room get up and go to the bathroom. Leo typically dreamed at random times. This night was particularly vivid. He was in a big grassy field. His mother was licking him on the back of his neck. His brother, a mountain lion cub, was walking through the grass nearby, as the sun set. Clouds were on the horizon, and the colors in the sky were amazing — more so than any sunset he had ever seen. Lightning flashed in the distant western sky. He saw Catia’s face. It turned into a Cheetah’s face, but still looked like the Catia he was familiar with. She looked him in the eye, and turned and ran — a Cheetah running though the grass toward the setting sun; he ran after her. Then he woke to Catia stirring in bed, and he heard the sound of Violet in the bathroom. Jasmine always had weird dreams. They almost made sense, but then she would wake and could only remember nonsense. Random places that were so familiar that she had never been to, random people that she knew like family but had never met before; those were always the elements of her dreams. Several times, her dreams had inspired her in waking life. Walk home or take a cab? A dream the night before would guide her decision, only to lead to unexpected meetings and higher paying jobs. Pink or purple shirt? Her dreams the night before led to meeting her sistah Sara, when she wore the same shirt to a P.T.A. meeting. That was just the tip of the iceberg with her dreams. But she never gave them much credence. Just the weirdness of coincidence that was unexplainable in life; nothing to pay attention to. As a struggling single mother, life had bigger worries and problems to surmount; no time for chasing dreams. This night sleeping at Leo’s in his sister’s bed, she dreamed she was in Egypt … ancient Egypt. José Yaguar was there, but he looked different — he was an Arab-African man — but Jasmine knew it was him. Suddenly she was in the middle of the Great Pyramid — she just "knew" it — a small room with one doorway and limestone walls, floor, ceiling. The door closed. She and José were trapped inside. Then she woke. Sweat was on her brow. She wondered to herself if it was her imagination inspired by the stories José Yaguar and Yellow Tiger told, or a glimpse of the past they told of… A minute later she heard Violet in the bathroom downstairs. Jazmin had dreamed of her children every night for years — since they were kidnapped from her. This night she saw their faces. They were happy and together, playing, running in a circle. But they were all the same age at the same time. They were all little babies and teenagers at the same time. Lilia stopped running and looked at her mother, and said "¡Hola Mama!" and the words echoed in her head for what seemed like eternity — Lilia’s eyes never looking away for eternity. She woke and walked out of the guest-room where she was sleeping, and heard Violet in the bathroom downstairs. Leo looked at Catia and smiled, and took her hand. She was already smiling back. He got up out of bed, grabbed a housecoat for himself, and helped Catia get into her wheelchair, putting a blanket across her lap and tucking it in halfway up her torso. “I’ll get some water boiling” Leo said, as he looked at the clock. “Victoria will be here soon enough.” Catia remained quiet; she said nothing as Leo smiled at her as he walked out to the kitchen; she just smiled back. ================= Yellow Tiger stirred in his seat … those airplane seats with backrests for people 6′3″, yet legroom for people 5′2″. The pillow he brought to sit on shifted just a bit and his posture was supported. He drifted into a light meditative sleep and began to see a pattern of colored lights and shapes, ever-changing, like looking through a kaleidoscope. Suddenly the pattern merged together internally and he saw the faces of Violet, Catia, Jasmine, José, Lilia, Ts'uyya, Leo, Rafaél, Father Thomas, and Jazmin all arranged in a pattern beyond description; They were arranged in a circle, but yet every face completely covered every other face. He could see the face of each one within the face of every other. And taken together, they created a gigantic, complex pattern of lights, shapes, and colors. He awoke to the offer of a cellophane-wrapped package of crackers made from hyper-processed wheat that had been poisoned in the growing fields with the carcinogen "Agent Orange" (Roundup), with palm-oil-infused "peanut butter" subsequently thickened with bacterial waste "filler" (xanthan gum) and a Coca-Cola from an aluminum can served in a styrofoam cup, which he politely turned down. He hoped to himself that another emergency in his life would never again lead to a plane ride. Then he wondered — who else was going to get dragged into this convergence that his dream portrayed? They always seemed to happen in sets of either 3 or 13. Or, WAS it a trap? Had the Red Dragon flashed her images into his mind … was he that tired from the week’s busy schedule and the plane rides, that he lost a bit of focus? He had never been able to sleep on a plane before … but then again, he never really had to. He was starting to feel the "old" in his age after 92 trips around the sun. ================= Sitting in Leo & Catia’s kitchen, the five new old friends sat around the table, eating the morning’s breakfast that Victoria had prepared for them. She had just slipped out early to catch a train to Boston for a classical music performer’s gathering. Everyone had been especially quiet all morning so far; not much more than friendly, polite words were spoken as they gathered, waited for the meal to be prepared, and started eating; no real conversation. Victoria had turned on the radio, and they were listening to the morning news. {{{as reported by NPR News week of March 9-15, 2025 — not a direct quote}}} “President Stumpie has declared the imprisonment of non-violent families will resume, including the separation of children from their parents, despite laws and previous court orders against it … {¿ The A.C.L.U. has vowed to fight it in court. ?} The president also declared himself to be an agent of God last weekend, vowing nothing will stop him. Later in the week, President Stumpie used the political power of the White House and its staff, and the attention of the media that cover the White House, for a free global advertising stint as he bought a Tesla vehicle in front of the White house directly from Snylon Puscle, the head of the new D.O.G.E. government agency who is also getting paid by the Federal Government large unaccountable sums of money to cut Federal Government spending, for which they have shown little results. Also this week, a member of congress in Arizona sold his Tesla, calling Puscle an "asshole"; meanwhile Puscle’s SpaceX launched another rocket into orbit this week carrying payload for the Federal Government to the International Space Station, where U.S. astronauts have been stranded since last summer. … … …” “They’re profiteering terrorists. Heartless terrorists” Catia said. The news on the radio continued. {{{as reported by NPR News week of March 18-25, 2025 — not a direct quote}}} “President Stumpie’s team also deported a group of Venesualans to a notoriously violent El Salvadorian prison without due process or even evidence of a crime being committed, against the direct orders of the judicial system. The Venesualan president called it "kidnapping".” “How could anyone vote for a baby snatcher or a baby killer or someone who clearly terrorizes poor migrants? Like we had a choice in the last election. Like we ever have a choice” Leo said in disgust, looking down at his bowl of fruit and granola, stirring it randomly without thinking. Violet changed the vibe. “So, did anyone have any dreams last night?” Everyone stopped chewing momentarily, and they looked around the room at each other’s eyes; they nodded at each other. “Ah, yea. Disturbing. Like wierd old memories that never happened” Jasmine replied. “But, dreams are just dreams, right?” “Dreams are the portal to a so-called higher consciousness — a portal to the "spirit world" as Shamans say around the world” Leo countered. He looked at his wife and said “Last night I dreamed I met you there, Catia-Cheetah,” and he smiled. She smiled back. “I had a dream last night, too. I haven’t had many in years, but last night, it was a clear dream. But I don’t know … understand what I dreamed about … unless … maybe …” suddenly it became clear to her. Why she couldn’t understand it before?… “I think I saw the Red Dragon.” Jazmin squirmed in her seat involuntarily. “I don’t know where; or why I know it was her. She looked back at me, though.” Violet’s smile vanished. “I felt like I remembered who I was … who I was in all my past lives, and everyone I know who are my friends from all those lives. I’ve always trusted my intuition, but now even more … I somehow just intuitively know that the Red Dragon saw you looking at her in the spirit world.” Violet looked at Jazmin. “Did you dream last night?” Jazmin nodded her head quietly. “Si. I dreamed I saw my children.” Violet asked “what were they doing?” Jazmin said “they were playing and happy. And Lilia said "Hola".” Violet responded “I think you saw them in your dreams‼ Don’t worry, we will find them soon‼” She smiled a bold smile at Jazmin. Jazmin smiled back. Her hope was growing.