The following is an account of a gathering of the VIV writing collective. All names have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
Night 2 /Day 2
Gabby was holding her fork with a square of the rarebit teetering on it. She seemed to be paused and I wondered if she was holding her breath.
“That’s intense,” Sabrina said to Angie. “That’s kind of scary. The black thing made the hairs on my arm stand up. It just watched you?”
Gabby put the bite of food back on her plate.
“It did,” Angie said. “It was scary, honestly, but it was cool too. It was the most vivid dream I can ever remember having.”
“That black thing…” Sabrina said and Gabby looked down at her plate.
“This is so good, Chief,” Noah said, scraping gooey cheese from his plate. “A creepy dream like Angie’s is worth it.”
“Was it?” Gabby asked.
“Oh definitely,” Angie said and she put a serving of it on her plate, eating it with a smile. “It is really good, Chief. And I’m hoping I see the black thing again in my dreams tonight. I got some ideas how to take it out.”
We all laughed as we ate and drank wine. We did eventually discuss more ideas for our newsletter, but as we were getting ready for bed, I noticed Gabby was still sitting and sipping a glass of wine. I sat next to her on the couch in the living room.
“Cheers,” she said and lifted her glass in my direction. I smiled at her.
“We’re planning to be up early tomorrow for that ferry ride to the lighthouse,” I mentioned.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Gabby said and took a long sip of wine. “I just don’t do too well with creepy stuff, you know?”
I shook my head and looked at her with concern.
“That dream that Angie told us about,” Gabby explained, “it’s all I can think about now and I ate so much of that cheese toast. One more glass of this should settle my nerves and I’ll probably pass out here on the couch.”
I poured myself a glass as we talked. Everyone else had gone to bed for the night and we sat in the dark, under the glow of the television.
“I’m doing that ongoing piece about the flea market in Ladoga,” Gabby said as we sipped and ignored whatever was on tv. “It’s such a staple of the latinx community in the city. I already have some things for the first couple of pieces.”
“That sounds awesome,” I said with a lot of enthusiasm and the wine was beginning to make me slur.
“I’m glad that we’ve been doing more to cover the diversity of Ladoga,” Gabby said. “I’ll never forget the first time I found a copy of This and Other Things, there was an article in that issue about the used bookstore along the highway. I love that bookstore, I used to go once a week and reading that article was like being there. I had to be a part of This and Other Things after that and the way you’re prioritizing diversity just makes it more likely that anyone in town can pick up an issue and find themselves in it.”
I hugged Gabby. She really understood the soul of our writing collective and it made me feel good that she shared my enthusiasm for the work we were doing.
We poured another glass of wine, but we were both asleep before we finished it.
Noah woke us early the next morning and Angie was standing next to him.
“I had the freakiest dream last night,” Noah said excitedly as Gabby and I sat up and rubbed our eyes. “That dark thing from Angie’s dream was in it.”
“Did you have a strange dream last night?” I asked Gabby.
“No,” she said after a big yawn. “What was the dream, Noah?”
“I’ll tell you guys about it tonight at dinner,” he said. “We have to go before we’re late for the ferry.”
Everyone took turns showering and as I filled Hallie and Angie in on Gabby’s Ladoga flea market idea, Sabrina sat down at the dining room table.
“Did you have a dream last night?” she asked Angie.
“No I didn’t,” she said. “I ate plenty of the rabbit too.”
“Noah said the black thing from your dream showed up in his dream,” Sabrina said. “It was in mine too!”
“But you didn’t eat any of the rabbit…” Angie said.
“It’s rarebit,” I said.
“I did,” Sabrina said. “I woke up late last night to pee and I stopped by the fridge because I had the munchies. I took a bite of the rabbit and went to bed. It was so good, Chief, I have to say. At some point this morning, I had a dream and that thing was there, the black thing.”
Noah came into the dining room then and rushed everyone so we could get out of the house in time to catch the ferry. We did make it and we spent the entire day out on an island exploring a lighthouse.
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