JM BENAVIDEZ

Dancing... he wanted me to go dancing? After the morning I'd had? The two guys I had spent the night with and wanted to wake up to had spent the night adoring other women; while I had spent my night growing an infatuation for a man I had previously called uncle. I shuddered, I would never call him that again, that's for sure. I wasn't even sure I could face him again. What if I totally freaked out? What if I saw him and all I wanted to do was find out what that kiss would have been like? What would my mom say? I shook my head and walked into the closet. Nope, I was done with trying to please people and I was done with romance too. I pulled off my jeans and t-shirt, trading them for a pair of black jean shorts, a white sports bra and a neon green muscle shirt with multi-colored neon splats over the top. It wasn't anything like what my sisters would be wearing, but it would glow in the lights of the dance hall and it brightened my dark mood. I looked down at my bare feet and shrugged. I wasn't trying to please anyone except my dad so I went as I was. No fancy hair, no make-up and no shoes.

I smiled at my rebellious spirit and practically skipped out of the house towards the dance hall. I had nearly made it there without running into anyone when my mom waved from near the pool area. "Hey Meira, can I speak with you a second?" I took a deep breath and nodded, heading towards her instead of making a beeline in the opposite direction like my feet wanted to do. "Yeah, what's up?" She smiled and motioned for me to follow her away from the main path and back towards the pool. "How are you doing? I heard you had a rough morning." She stopped and turned towards me, her face gentle with genuine concern. I threw my arms around her, instantly overcome with guilt. "I'm sorry, it wasn't my idea to have the dream and I feel awful about it." I groaned, hiding my face. 

She took a deep breath and petted the back of my head softly. "Honey, I don't have any idea what you're talking about. But you don't have to feel guilty about your dreams sweetheart." I leaned back, looking into her face. "You don't know?" She shook her head and I frowned, taking her head and leading her to a nearby lounge chair. I motioned for her to have a seat and her expression took on a slightly more serious tone and she sat down facing me. "So what's this all about?" I sighed. "You know how we all shared dreams?" She nodded. "Yes and I know that everyone shared a dream last night too." I shook my head. "I didn't have that dream, I had a different one." She calmly crossed her hands in her lap, looking into my eyes as she tried to connect the dots. "So what did you dream about?" I hung my head. "It wasn't so much of what I dreamt about, but who." I frowned. "It was innocent, nothing happened. But it made me feel so..." I sighed, looking up into her eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to feel that way. But when we leaned towards each other for a kiss and I woke up..." I fidgeted my hands. "I still wanted him to kiss me." 

She took a deep breath, nodding softly. "I see. You didn't dream about one of your half brothers." I shook my head. "No I didn't." She looked down at her hands and then back up at me. "Have you talked to him since you've been awake?" I shook my head. "Are you kidding me? I'm freaking out! Not only did it weird me out, he's yours! I did talk to dad though." Her head snapped up. "Your dad knew?" I nodded. "Yeah, Zaaz showed up on his door this morning. He was pretty shook up too." Her face straightened and I realized I had told her who I dreamt about. "You dreamt about Zaaz?" I bit my bottom lip and nodded, feeling an instant wave of panic. "Yeah." 

She closed her eyes and shook her head, grumbling unintelligibly. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes looking at me. "I'm sorry honey. I'm not mad at you and I'm not upset about how you feel. I understand completely." She closed her eyes and took another deep breath. "It's just that of all of the people the Creator could have given you a dream about, I can't believe he chose Zaaz." She groaned. "I guess it could have been worse, you could have dreamt about Vraniel or Sabrathan." She clapped her hands over her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that out loud." She shook her open hands in the air. "I can't talk about this right now. I'll just say something stupid." She stood up and looked down at me before bending down and kissing me on the forehead. "I still love you honey. Don't feel bad. I'm alright." 

She started to walk away and my mouth opened before I could stop it. "So you don't care?" She stopped and turned around to face me. "Do I care that you had the dream? No. Do I care that you feel love struck because of it? No. Do I care if you act on those feelings? Yes." She shook her head. "We'll talk about this later. I want to talk to Zaazanach first." She turned and walked away leaving me staring after her. A string of profanities ran through my head as I watched her walk away. What had happened? How had I managed to screw that up? All I had to do was just keep my mouth shut and let her walk away. But could I do that? Nope, I had to say something stupid. I threw myself face down onto the lounge chair I was sitting on. “What’s wrong with me?” I groaned, wrapping my hands over the back of my head.

A large shadow fell across me and I stared down at it through the slits in the chair. “Please go away.” I moaned, unwilling to face anyone else. The shadow crouched over me as the person knelt down beside me. “She’ll get over it. Your mom has always been overly emotional about everything. This realm seems to do that to her. That and she sees a lot of herself in you.” I sat up, raising my eyebrows as I looked into Azrael’s face. The eldest of all of my uncles, if anyone could change my mind about anything it would be him. I shook my head. “All I had to do was bite my tongue.” He smiled. “It’s not in your nature, just like it isn’t in hers.” 

I shook my head. “Do you even know what she’s upset about?” He nodded. “I’m a little ashamed to admit I was eavesdropping.” I smiled. “That doesn’t seem like you.” He laughed. “It really isn’t, but I could tell by the way you reacted to her question that something was up and I’m really good at damage control.” I nodded. “Well, you’re the most qualified so I won’t hold it against you.” He nodded. “Thank you.” He wrinkled his brows. “You shared a dream with Zaazanach then?” I nodded. “Yeah. We were dancing, I think dad called it an aerial performance or something like that.” Azrael nodded. “That sounds right. Zaazanach is a very talented aerialist. Did you enjoy it? Your mom was nervous when he danced with her, although she still considers it one of her favorite experiences.” I smiled. “It was fantastic! I’ve never felt anything like it. It was like flying.” Azrael nodded. “I think that’s why he learned how to do it. It reminded him of how it felt when he had wings.” 

I chewed on my bottom lip. Wings, I had seen them so often that I barely registered their wings anymore. Not all of my uncles had wings, but some of them did. Even my dad had wings; a fact that used to enrapture me for hours as a small child. I raised an eyebrow as I looked up at Azrael. “Why do some of you have wings but not the others?” He nodded thoughtfully. “It’s a long complicated story with a different answer for each of us who does not have wings. But the short answer is preference. We were made whole physically once we were made whole mentally. Those of us without wings, no longer needed them to feel complete.” I nodded. "I guess that seems logical." He tilted his head looking at me. "Do you feel better?" I shrugged. "Not when I think about it, but at least I'm distracted." He smiled and patted my elbow. "You should go dance with the others and keep distracting yourself. Like I said, your mom will get over it and everything will work itself out." I nodded and stood up, eager to return to people my own age.

I waved and quickly bee lined for the dance hall. When I approached the hall I could hear the music blaring and I smiled as I noticed how many more bodies were packed inside. It looked like all of my siblings were inside. They were playing one of my favorite songs and I grinned as I walked in. Everyone was dancing in groups rather than pairs and I quickly joined the girls in their circle. It felt more like old times, with the guys keeping to themselves and us girls giggling at their foolishness. We must have danced for several hours, periodically venturing to other groups and then segregating ourselves again.

The sun was going down when the house lights came on and mom walked up on stage, taking the microphone from Tartys who was once again acting as our DJ. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed my dad and uncles lining up in the back of the room. I cringed and wondered what horrors were about to unfold. Mom looked around the room and paused as her eyes met mine. "I have been talking to a lot of you today, both the kids and the adults and it seems that these dreams that everyone has been having has caused a little turmoil." She motioned to the group of guys on one side of the room and then to us girls on the other. "Look at you, it's like you have cooties." I snorted and she nodded. "So we've decided we're going to do an ice breaker to ease some of the tension." 

We all looked around the room at each other and mom smiled. "I'm going to tell you what we're doing and then I'm going to have everyone meet up in the dining room to participate." She nodded and shrugged and she took a deep breath. "You're going to do what's called speed dating. Since there is such an uneven number male to female ratio, we're going to keep it to one minute each question." I raised my eyebrows and she continued. "You girls will each sit at a table. A guy will sit down with you and you and we start the timer. You ask him a question. After a minute, he'll ask you one. Then when the timer goes off, he gets up and moves to the next chair over." I watched my siblings nod and shrug in approval as she continued. "At the end you can decide who you'd like to follow up with or plan a date, whatever." 

I heard what she was saying, but I was slightly distracted by the presence of my dad and uncles. Mom took a deep breath, drawing my attention and then she nodded. "While most of you were sharing the same dream last night, one of you weren't and this has brought something important to light." All of my siblings quieted down, listening intently as I panicked, wondering if they knew who hadn't been in the dream. Mom looked over my head and then nodded. "It seems that the Creator wanted to point out that there are twenty five men in this realm and not just eleven. So all of you will be participating in this event." There were several gasps and confused expressions around the room. Aimi piped up first. "Wait, what? You want us to consider them as eligible bachelors?" She asked tossing a thumb towards the back of the room. Mom nodded. "Yes and apparently so does the Creator, because one of you dreamt as much last night." 

Aimi's mouth fell open and she scanned over me and the rest of my sisters, desperately trying to remember who wasn't in the dream last night. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm kind of freaking out about the idea of someone dreaming about my dad." I sighed and raised my head. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't dream about your dad then isn't it?" The rest of my sisters looked at me with horrified expressions and I shrugged at them casually. "Don't worry I can say the same thing about your dad's too." I shrugged, glancing over at the guys. "Now if the rest of you are going to consider me a leper because of a dream I didn't create, then I'd like to get this over with." I quickly turned and walked towards the main exit, taking extra care not to look at anyone in the back of the room. As I stalked down the walkway I heard my mom tell everyone to head over to the dining room and to keep an open mind.