I’d had a bad dream but now I know that it wasn’t a dream. It was somethin’ else. It was as real as you and me, I know that now. It was about nine o’clock when I saw it. I was tryin’ to say goodnight to Gloria – properly I mean. Not a kiss, if that’s what you’re thinkin’, just a plain old see ya type thing. I’m not inta kissin’. Gloria wouldn’t like me doin’ that.’
I tried not to smile. Snook could be really naïve at times.
‘So there I was,’ he went on, ‘I was just standin’ there, wonderin’ how to do that, say goodnight that is, when I saw somethin’ real peculiar.’
‘How do you mean?’ I asked.
‘I had a kinda vision. I saw a kid, who looked like a ghost. He was about ten or twelve years old. He seemed to float out of the darkness like some sort of spirit or apparition until suddenly he was standin’ right there in front of me and Gloria. I didn’t know what to say or what to do, so I just stood there, paralysed … I can tell ya, I was ready to freak out big time. Anyway, the only other thing I remember is that the kid, or ghost, or whatever, was dressed in long khaki pants, braces and a peak cap.’
‘In old-fashioned clothes?’
‘Yeah, sort of. Not too old-fashioned, though. Just a bit behind the times. Anyway, the funny thing was that he just stood there starin’ and not sayin’ anythin’. Not a word. He was as quiet as a … as a snake just before it has a go at ya. It was dead set scary.’
‘What did Gloria do? She must have been terrified.’
‘Nah, she wasn’t frightened at all. For some reason I can’t explain, she didn’t see a thing. The kid was invisible to her. All she saw was me standin’ there lookin’ clueless.’
‘What happened next?’
‘The kid left. He turned on his heel and disappeared back into the night.’
All through Snook’s story, I’d been watching his eyes; there was a real intensity about them that told me he was dead serious. He wasn’t playing games like he sometimes did. I sat back, thinking about what he’d been telling me, but he hadn’t finished.
‘What happened next was the really upsettin’ bit,’ he continued. ‘It’s probably the reason why Gloria’s talkin’ to Quigley and not to me.’ He paused for a second, and then added, ‘I can’t say I blame her.’
I was certain Snook’s thinking was a bit off here so I thought I’d better set him straight. ‘It’s the other way round, Snook. From what I saw, you’re the one not talking to her.’
‘Oh? How do you mean?’
I gave him a condensed version of this afternoon especially the bit about him snubbing Gloria on the bus.
Snook thought for a while and then said, ‘If all that’s true then what I did after I saw that kid wouldn’t have helped.’
‘Why? What’d you do?’
Leaning forward and in a low voice, he said, ‘One minute I was talkin’ to Gloria, askin’ her what she made of it all, the vision, and the next I was in a sort of daze, like I didn’t know what I was doin’. I dunno what Gloria thought about me actin’ like that; maybe she thought I’d gone bonkers or somethin’.’
Trying to picture Gloria’s role in all of this, I asked, ‘What happened then? Did Gloria help you?’
‘That’s it; I dunno if she did or not. All I do know is that I ended up back home … in bed. That’s when somethin’ else happened. It was like I was having a nightmare, but I know now that it wasn’t.’
Now it was my turn to sit forward. Snook’s story was more than just interesting; it was downright scary. I was getting worried about him too. His eyes, stretched and frantic, were now wandering all over the place, looking like they might go pop at any minute. ‘What then? What did you see then?’ I asked.
‘You won’t believe me if I tell you. I can hardly believe it myself.’
‘What?’
‘Last night, I saw the asteroid Stormy was talkin’ about today. It came from somewhere behind the stars and it was massive. It was goin’ flat out towards earth!’
Like a river of fire, Snook’s words burned and tumbled around in my head … asteroid … kid … nightmare, and, for some reason I felt they were trying to tell me something. Sitting on the edge of the chair, I leaned forward and whispered, ‘So you actually saw the asteroid Stormy was telling us about and it wasn’t just a dream.’
‘That’s right. The asteroid Stormy was talkin’ about this arvo was the one I saw last night. That’s for sure.’
I drew a deep breath. I needed to calm down. My heart was racing and thumping against my chest like a bongo drum. I sat back and told myself that I had to face the facts. What Snook had seen was real. There was no denying that.
And then I remembered.
I’d seen something last night too – at about nine o’clock. I’d been fairly tired when we got home yesterday so I’d gone to bed early, and like Snook, I’d dreamed. I hadn’t given it a second thought when I woke up this morning or for the rest of the day; it was one of those dreams that you have and then think no more about it.
‘Look,’ I said to Snook, feeling slightly wimpy about what I was going to say. ‘Don’t take this the wrong way, but I wouldn’t go around spruiking about what you saw if I were you. People might find your story hard to accept. After all, what you saw was pretty incredible. They’ll probably try and tell you that your imagination’s playing tricks, or that you’ve been dreaming. I don’t reckon they’ll believe that what you saw was real. For some reason, people find it hard to believe the unbelievable – even when it’s true.’
‘I don’t care what other people think or believe.’ His voice was low, almost deadpan. ‘I know what I saw.’ Then suddenly, he leaped from his chair, crossed the room and disappeared through the doorway waving his arms in the air like an orang-utan. ‘The other people,’ he called back from the passageway, ‘can go jump in the nearest lake!’
I could have kicked myself. I’d hurt his feelings and no wonder. I’d handled that with the subtlety of a sledge hammer. I got up and hurried after him. Shadow, ears pricked, head cocked to one side, rose from his prone position at the foot of my chair and followed. I caught up with Snook in the passage just before the kitchen. Turning him towards me so that his face was inches from mine, I said, ‘Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted to warn you about what other people might make of your story because it’s so … awesomely jaw dropping. I didn’t mean to suggest anything else.’
My next words seemed to just pop out. ‘Did you see anything else besides the kid and the asteroid?’
He looked directly into my eyes and said, ‘You know the planet Venus, the real bright one?’
‘Yes, the one that sits low in the western sky. I know it.’
He nodded with his chin towards the lounge-room. ‘Let’s go back in there. You might wanna sit down for this.’
Seeing
