Gideon McGee's Dream: Chapter Three

“Hello,” said Mrs. McGee, mildly annoyed that the phone tore her away from Peter Jennings and the Evening News. She reluctantly swung her feet to the floor and lifted herself from the green plaid Herculon couch. She was six steps from the kitchen and the only phone in the house.

"Hello...This is Jenny Bloom. May I speak to Gideon, please?”
“Oh, hello Jenny. This is Gideon’s mother. We haven’t met, but I know your mother. I understand she was in an accident a couple of weeks ago. I hope she’s feeling better.”

“She’s much better. Thank you, Mrs. McGee,” Jenny said. “Her arm was broken, but it could have been much worse. The man who hit her was drunk, and it was only luck that saved her. The car was totaled. He hit mom’s car at the rear door on the driver’s side. Two feet to the left and... well... mom was lucky.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it wasn’t more serious,” Clara McGee said. She felt uncomfortable and at a loss for words to describe adequately how she felt. Her mother had been killed by a drunk driver ten years earlier, and the pain had yet to go away. “Hold on a minute, and I’ll get Gideon.”
Mrs. McGee put the phone down slowly as she remembered the heartache of ten years ago. She walked to Gideon’s room, for she hated yelling, and refused to do so even though the walk down the hall was inconvenient.

“Gideon,” she said, knocking on his door. “Telephone. It’s Jenny Bloom.”

He had expected Jenny Bloom to call since being teamed with her for a science project that afternoon by Mrs. Gibson. Gideon practiced all afternoon what he would say to her, and found the thought of talking to her made him more nervous than blocking a two-hundred-pound defensive tackle. He threw open the door to his bedroom and nearly knocked his mother over as he raced for the phone.

“Hello,” he said before the phone was halfway to his mouth.
“Hello? Gideon? I can hardly hear you,” Jenny said. The sound of her voice made him dizzy.

“This is Gideon. We have a problem with the cord sometimes. It’s one of those old dial phones.” He lied about the cord, but not about the style of phone. Mr. McGee couldn’t see spending good money on a new phone just so he could push buttons and save three seconds in dialing up a number. “I guess you’re calling about Mrs. Gibson’s science project.” Gideon couldn’t imagine her calling him for any other reason.

“Yes. I tried to talk to you after class, but you rushed off so fast I didn’t get a chance.”

Gideon had bolted out of the class at the sound of the bell. He couldn’t speak to Jenny Bloom without first rehearsing what he would say. He had to avoid her, for something as difficult as talking to the girl he liked required preparation, and as with most things in his life he was not prepared. It was as though he prepared for being unprepared.

“I had a meeting with my guidance counselor and I didn’t want to be late,” he lied.
“You know, Gideon, I never thanked you for the Coke you got me at lunch just before Christmas break. I was so shocked. I was dying of thirst and didn't have a cent on me, and then you show up with a Coke. I was speechless.”

Gideon overheard Jenny complain to Barbara Howser how she’d kill for a Coke, that she just finished gym, and her mouth was as dry as straw. He rushed to the soda machine, deposited three quarters, then rushed back with the Coke.

“You looked thirsty,” Gideon said, fumbling for words.
“Whatever,” Jenny said. “Have you given any thought to our science project? It can also be a paper, you know? I’ve been thinking we could do something about the environment.”

“That’s a good idea,” Gideon said, not wanting to offend Jenny. “But don’t you think a lot of the other teams will be doing something on the environment too?”
“Yeah, you’re probably right, but what else is there?”
“This will probably sound stupid to you, but how about doing a paper on dreams?”
“That doesn’t sound stupid at all,” Jenny said, excitedly. “How did you ever come up with that idea? It’s great!”

“I don't know,” he said, shrugging his shoulders as though Jenny was there to see. “It just popped into my mind. But I’ve been having a lot of strange dreams lately, and I thought it might be fun to find out about them.”
“This is such a coincidence,” Jenny said. “Just the other day Barbara Howser told me about a strange dream she had.”
“Oh? What was it about?” Gideon asked, not really caring about Barbara Howser’s dream, but wanting to drag out the conversation.
“I promised her I wouldn’t tell, but it had to do with a tug of war.”

Gideon’s heart raced, much like it did just before the snap of the football in a game. A sense of urgency came over him that he neither understood nor cared to understand. “When did she have the dream?” he asked, his voice harsh and insistent.

“Why do you want to know?”
“Just tell me . . . please!”
"Well, she told me about it on Monday, so she must have had the dream on Sunday, the night of the ice storm.”
Gideon stopped breathing, and his heart seemed to move from his chest to his ears.
“Gideon? Are you there?” Jenny asked.
“Yes... yes, I’m here. It must be the phone line again.”
“What is it?” Jenny asked, not believing him this time. “What’s the matter?”

“I had a tug-of-war dream the next day. You’ve got to tell me about Barbara’s dream,” Gideon demanded, forgetting his shyness and whom he was talking to.
“I’ll tell you, but if you ever tell Barbara I’ll never speak to you again.”
“Promise. My lips are sealed,” Gideon said. He made a mental note never to tell Jenny a secret.

Jenny Bloom launched into the telling of Barbara Howser’s dream, while Gideon sat transfixed to the receiver of the beige phone. “The dream was very strange. You were triplets.”

“What do you mean, I was triplets? Are you saying her dream was about me?”
“That’s what I said, and I didn't say twins. I said triplets, and each one was different. One was dressed completely in black, and wore a scowl on his face. He was a shadowy creature, and gave Barbara the creeps. The second Gideon was in white, and his face was an ear-to-ear grin, like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. He gave Barbara the creeps as much as the shadow-Gideon did. The third Gideon glowed a sort of golden color, and Barbara said she was drawn to him in the most pleasant sort of way.”

“What were they doing?” Gideon asked, barely able to contain his curiosity.
“They were having a tug of war with a golden rope. Actually, the black Gideon and the white Gideon were having the tug of war. The golden Gideon was in the center, and with each hand held a luminous knotted rope that the other two Gideons were tugging on.”

“Were they saying anything?” Gideon asked.
“The angry, scowling Gideon kept shouting, ‘I hate you’, while the mindlessly smiling Gideon answered, ‘I love you.’ The golden Gideon seemed perfectly at peace, and said nothing.”

“Who won the tug of war?” Gideon asked, impatient to hear the conclusion.
“That was the odd part,” Jenny said, closing her eyes for a moment, and reflecting on the dream. "The golden Gideon, with ever-so-subtle finger movements, drew the other two Gideons toward him. The rope seemed to disappear into the golden Gideon’s hand as he drew the other two closer and closer to him. And as the smiling and the scowling Gideons came closer to the peaceful Gideon, their shouting grew softer.”

Gideon waited for Jenny to continue, but all he heard was silence. It hung in the phone’s receiver like an angry wasp, stinging his ear. “So?” he yelled. “Don’t you dare leave me hanging like this. What happened next?”

“Barbara woke up. And that’s it,” Jenny said. “The dream ended there, with no winner of the tug of war.” Jenny couldn’t understand Gideon’s agitation. After all, she thought, it was only a dream. “What’s the big deal about Barbara’s dream?” she asked.

“I had a dream just like it,” he said, and began his story; amazed that two people could have such similar dreams. “In my dream the tug of war wasn’t between people, it was between circles, one a half circle, and the other a full circle.
“The dream started as an image of one circle, half black and half white. Gradually the circle began to split and separate down the middle where the black and white meet.

“As they separated, the space between them filled with gold until it became a complete circle with the black and white halves some distance to the right and left of the middle circle that was now completely gold.”
“That doesn’t sound like a tug of war to me,” Jenny said. “The two half circles and the gold circle aren’t connected from what you’ve said so far.”

“That’s right,” Gideon said. “The black and white halves kept moving farther and farther away from the gold center until finally the gold circle shot out two golden threads that attached to the black and white halves.
“The two halves began to vibrate as though they were trying to continue their separation from the gold center, but the thread stopped their progress.
“Gradually the gold circle began to reel in the black and white halves, and, as they approached, the gold circle grew larger.

“With what seemed to be one great final effort the gold circle drew the two halves into itself. As the last of the black and white halves disappeared into the gold, the gold exploded. The circle grew in all directions, and seemed to expand into the size of a Galaxy. It continued to grow, gobbling up galaxy after galaxy when I finally woke up.”

Jenny had the ending of Barbara Howser’s dream. She knew from Gideon’s dream that the golden Gideon would have won the tug of war, and that he would have grown by absorbing the black and white Gideons. Jenny didn’t understand the meaning of it all, but was determined to find out.

“What do you think it all means, Gideon?” Jenny asked.
“How should I know?” Gideon scoffed, thinking her question ridiculous. “Until you mentioned Barbara’s dream, I had forgotten about mine. I’ve never paid much attention to dreams, and except for an occasional nightmare I didn’t think I dreamed at all. That is, until two weeks ago.”

Jenny sat thinking for a moment, and then asked, “Do you know Susan Spiro?”
“Not very well. She’s in our Algebra I class, isn’t she? What about her?”
“Well... I’ve known her for years, and we’re quite good friends. Her father’s a shrink, and I remember Sue telling me once that he works with people’s dreams.”

“Yeah, so?” Gideon asked, not yet catching where Jenny was going with this train of thought.
“So maybe we could kill two birds with one stone,” Jenny answered. “We could find out some things about dreams for our paper, and maybe discover what your dream means at the same time.”

“I don’t know if I want to find out what my dream means. What if it’s something bad?”
“What if it is?” Jenny shot back. “You can’t go through life without some bad happening.”
“Yeah, but I’ve had more than my fair share.”

“Are you blind?” Jenny asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean just what I said. Are you blind?”
“No,” Gideon answered.
“Tim Chimera is blind. Are you deaf?”
“No.”
“Laura Harken is deaf. Are you mentally handicapped?”
“Sometimes I wonder,” Gideon said, laughing. “Enough already. I get your point.”

“If I can arrange a meeting with Dr. Spiro this Saturday can you make it?”
“I think so,” Gideon said, knowing he rarely had plans for the weekend. “I don’t have anything planned, yet.”
“Good. I’ll call Sue now and let you know tomorrow in Mr. Numer’s class. Is that okay?”
“Sure. That would be fine.”
“Great. Then I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Goodbye Gideon.”
“Goodbye Jenny. See you tomorrow.”

Gideon’s loud yelp as he hung up the phone startled his mother in the next room. The dizziness he felt when he first picked up the phone returned, and he had to steady himself on the kitchen table. He wondered if this happened to every boy.
“Gideon,” Clara McGee called. “You sound like you just won the lottery. Did Jenny promise you a dishwasher?”

“Really funny, mom,” Gideon replied, embarrassed he was so careless with his emotions. “But maybe my luck’s about to change.” He walked back to his room and fell asleep that night hoping Jenny would appear in his dreams.