Excerpt: Dreamers Awake

“This coffee’s too hot, this coffee’s not cold enough, this scone is stale, this pumpkin loaf tastes like Pumpkin. Of course it tastes like Pumpkin, it’s fucking PUMPKIN LOAF!”

Sometimes Kiara found it simply amazing that she didn’t just snap and end up hitting a customer. She knew it would get her fired, probably arrested but sometimes she wouldn’t mind spending a few hours in a holding cell with all the stupidity that surrounded her on a daily basis. No one had ever said that being a Barista at Starbucks was going to be easy. In fact, everyone always told her that Retail was hard.

She knew it was no walk in the park. She had worked at a few stores in her time. But having to serve people their precious, make it perfect every time or else I’ll kill you, coffee every morning, noon and night, Kiara was really starting to regret taking this job. She had applied because you only had to work twenty hours and you got Health Insurance. That was better then anything else she was finding. All that really seemed available right now were a bunch of Temporary agencies and she just wasn’t sure how comfortable she was about being tossed around from place to place.

Well, she didn’t really know if that was what temp. agencies were like but still, Starbucks had seemed like the better choice. Come on, all the Coffee, Pastries and weird names for sizes one person could stomach. It would be a great job if it weren’t for the damned customers. But wasn’t that always the case?

Sometimes she was pretty sure life would be a lot more fun without anyone else around. But then again, she could just be a bitter and angry person. She was a longer by nature. She didn’t have many friends, in fact, most of her friends were people she met online and had never actually talked to face to face. She liked Dr. Williams but she knew he didn’t think of her the same way, as a friend, someone who he could confide in. He just helped her for the money, or at least that’s what everyone always said.

Everyone in Kiara’s small world were her Aunt Maribel and her Uncle Walter. Her parents had died when she was young in a car accident and since Maribel and Walter were her legal guardians, she had been sent to live with them. She had few memories of her parents and just a single photo of the three of them together. She looked startlingly like her Mother but had her Father’s smile and build. They looked happy in the picture and she looked happy too. Kiara often found herself wondering if she had ever looked that happy since they died.

With a heavy sigh she managed to push the thought of her parents away and continued to walk. Boston was alive and buzzing with life today and she had a feeling most of the people walking around her were Tourists. When wasn’t Boston filled with tourists? That’s what you got when you lived in one of the most historical states in the Country. But if they left her alone and didn’t ask her to say Nor’Easter than she was fine with them being there. She just wished they would learn how to walk like the rest of humanity.

Side stepping a teenager who had stopped to take a picture of the Prudential building Kiara ducked her head and kept on walking, hands in the pockets of her coat, wind whipping her hair in every direction. It was cold out and she had to allow herself a small grin at the fact that most of the people around her were bundled up as if it was the middle of Winter. Yep, they were definitely tourists.

As she walked she fiddled with an ear piece of her IPod and tried to push it more securely into her ear. The device was a good 3 years old and the sound quality was starting to diminish. She figured she could take it to the Apple Store and see about getting it fixed but she would probably just have to get it replaced which would set her back a few hundred dollars. She didn’t need an IPod but it was nice to have fun when you were walking to and from work. With another sigh she reached the cross walk to bring her across the long street of Huntington Ave and over towards the Prudential Mall, planning on stopping in at Barnes and Noble and seeing if there was anything good on the shelves. The mid-afternoon sun gleamed and glittered off the giant glass towers that surrounded her but she barely noticed, just narrowed her eyes against the glare.

Shrugging her shoulders she pulled her coat tighter around herself and walked quickly across the street, humming slightly to the music that beat through her ears. Two boys stood in front of her with hats and scarves wrapped around themselves, puffy winter jackets making them look like marshmallows. Another smile moved her lips as she shook her head and pushed the button to signal the walk sign then waited patiently for the little white man to show in the box across the street, signaling it was ok to go.

Just as her fingers fell away from the cool metal though a scream caught her ear. It
was a woman’s scream, sharp and high, just like what you heard in the movies whenever something bad happened, an accident or a murder. Kiara felt her eyes widen, brows furrowing as she blinked and looked towards the sound, noticing the two boys conversation quickly dying down beside her. There was a group of people across the street out in front of the Prudential and they were pointing up into the sky, hands over their mouths and one of them was screaming.

“What the…” was all Kiara managed before she saw it.

There was the tiniest of dots falling from the top of what she called the XMen building. It had a strange design on the top that looked the mutant machine that Magneto used to attack Liberty Island in the first movie. Her heart leapt into her throat as she watched the dot fall, seemingly in slow motion. And the realization that it wasn’t a dot but a person tumbling through the sky sent an ice cold knife of fear stabbing straight into her heart. The screams were getting louder as the man fell, Kiara watching with horrified eyes, knowing she had to do something but not knowing what. How was she going to save him, she couldn’t get up there in time, there was no way, he was going to die and she would have just stood there and watched it happen.

But no, that couldn’t be it. There had to be something she could do. All her life she had felt like she was meant for something different, something bigger than the other people around her. Whatever that was she had yet to figure it out. But she could not just stand here and watch someone die, she would not. Gritting her teeth tight together she took in a deep, steadying breath, eyes trained on the figure that was slowly getting bigger as he came closer and closer to the ground and then, she jumped.

She meant to simply dive off the curb and run as fast as she could across the street. But it seemed that fate had different plans. The moment her feet left the sidewalk she was airborne, shooting off into the sky fast like a bullet. There was no time to be afraid, no time to wonder what in the Hell was happening. She just let the wind whip past her, watched as the man came closer and closer and then her arms were wrapped tight around him and they were both hurtling straight for the immense building made entirely of windows.

The sound of shattering glass was deafening and another scream tore through the air. Her eyes managed to open and she found herself laying in a pool of glass crystals on a simple white carpet in an office. than the feel of carpet beneath her wasn’t what she had expected. She had half expected to hit the concrete just like the man she had saved but they were alive, at least she was pretty sure they were.

The door to the office was open, a crowd of people staring wide eyed and open mouthed at her. She met their gaze with a confused one of her own. It took her a minute to realize what she was doing here but then she remembered the man. She sat up fast but a sudden lance of pain stabbed through her and she stopped, sucking in a breath and growling out, “Ow…” before clamping her hand tight to her side. Letting out the breath slowly she glanced beside her and saw the man sitting up as well, eyes wide and confused. Each movement was slower now as the pain raging through her body started to register but just the same she reached a hand out to touch fingers to the man’s arm and say gently, “Are you ok?”

The man’s laugh was bright and relieved, escaping through a smile of gleaming white teeth as he shook his head and said easily, “I dunno what just happened Kid but…you saved my life.”

She felt her own smile begin to creep to her lips at the man’s words, reassured now that they were both alive, surprisingly. And with a small nod, already hearing the wail of sirens coming closer, Kiara Small nodded and said matter of factly, “I did…didn’t I” before the office workers rushed forward to dust them off and help both of them to their feet.