Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3 by David Pandolfe Page A

forward,
placing himself between Rose and the couple. He appraised Henry and Nikki,
sizing them up.
    When he didn’t speak, Rose said, “This is Joseph.”
    Henry’s eyes remained guarded for a moment, then he
offered his hand. “Nice to meet you. Nikki and I just moved in down the—”
    “I thought I heard that.” Joseph ignored Henry’s
outstretched hand. He turned to Rose. “We need to get moving.”
    Rose checked his eyes to see if the anger from before was
gone. That seemed to be the case but she saw something else there now. He
seemed nervous, something she’d never seen before.
    “I’m sorry,” Rose said. “We we’re running late for an
appointment.”
    “It was nice meeting you,” Henry said.
    The two of them turned and walked back toward their car.
Joseph reached out and took hold of Rose’s hand, his grasp tightening. Rose
started to follow him, then stopped.
    “No, don’t,” Joseph whispered.
    Rose almost did as she was told. But something inside
her—a feeling she couldn’t quite understand—told her she had to get to know
these two new people. “Wait! Would the two of you like to get together
sometime?”
    Henry and Nikki turned around again.
    “That would be nice,” Nikki said.
    “You could come over,” Rose said. “We could listen to
music.”
    “We’d like that,” Henry said. “When’s a good time?”
    Rose broke free of Joseph’s grasp. She’d have to talk to
him later about being so rude. The fact was, it would do them both good to get
to know some new people.
    “How does tomorrow sound?” she said. “Is that too soon?”
     

6
    Moths to a Flame
     
    Wherever they’d just been vanished as suddenly as it had
appeared. Moments before, they’d stood on a street in an affluent neighborhood talking
to Rose. She’d gotten out of her car and walked toward them, then he had
too—the one who’d introduced himself as Joseph. Now, they stood in a desolate
landscape where a cold wind pushed mist over gray grass, the sky having
darkened to twilight in an instant. Trees that had just towered green and lush now
stood withered and blackened. The large houses, set back from the road with
their manicured lawns and hedges, had disappeared along with the tree-lined
streets. Nothing obstructed the horizon now, where through the gloom Henry saw
that a cliff gave way to an expanse of roiling dark ocean. Above the water,
swirling black clouds promised thunder.
    Nikki gazed around, her eyes narrowed with confusion.
“Where are we?”
    “I’m not sure,” Henry said. “But I think this is another
part of Rose’s dream. Somewhere between her reality and her delusion.”
    “The part she doesn’t see,” Nikki said.
    “That’s my guess, yeah. It’s like she’s created her own
realm.”
    Nikki wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the
chill. “It’s lovely. Remind me to send postcards.”
    Despite their bleak surroundings, Henry had to laugh.
“Yeah, nothing foreboding about this place.” He wasn’t sure what they were
supposed to do or where they were supposed to go. All the same, he started
walking.
    “Let me get this straight,” Nikki said. “Did she think we
were driving a car?”
    That part had confused Henry too. He hadn’t known quite what
to say when Rose first approached them and apologized. But then she’d said that
thing about backing out of the driveway and he’d decided to go along with it.
“Martha told us some things would be arranged. I don’t know, maybe that was
part of what she meant. Either way, Rose definitely thought we were driving.
Kind of ironic.”
    Nikki nodded, her eyes still searching the gloomy
hillsides stretching out before them. “No kidding. You never even got your
permit and the first time you drive you almost cause an accident.”
    “Wait, she said she backed out of the driveway without
looking!”
    “River Rat, are we really going to debate who caused an
accident that didn’t happen when no one was actually driving a