The Great Dream Guardian

By R.N. Owens

When a girl's nightmares begin to come alive, her mother gives her an unusual birthday gift: a mixed-up stuffed cat with real-looking eyes. It turns out to be not just a doll but maybe the best friend she could imagine. For C. K. Barnes, it could mean the difference between survival and disaster.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514411292

R.N. Owens

R. N. Owens is from Southern Indiana. He graduated from Indiana State University with a bachelor's degree in radio, TV and film. He has aspired to write literature since childhood. This is his first novel.

Book preview

1.

A Girl and Her Mother

There was once a girl named Carrie Kay Barnes. She was almost ten years old, and she had a problem that she thought no one could remedy. She was afraid of her dreams. That’s where our story begins.

She liked to be called C.K. instead of Carrie because that’s what her dad used to call her when she was much smaller. Then, he got called away to fight in a far-away place. Her Mother told C.K. that he was very brave and saved the lives of a lot of men just like him. To do that, though, he couldn’t come back himself. So, C.K. and her mother Sheila had to move away from their big house and into an apartment in the city. It happened when she was four, so to C.K. it seemed a long time ago, and she had learned how to get along on her own. She played sports and made friends, but she sometimes got strange looks from kids who thought she liked playing pirates, basketball, and roughhousing a little too much for a girl. C.K. didn’t care about that; she liked doing those things and if people thought it was peculiar that she liked plastic swords more than Barbie Dolls, wearing jeans instead of dresses, and getting more dirty than any of the other girls, then they would just have to get over it. She liked a lot of not-so-girlish things, especially animals. Not the cutesy ones like rabbits or gerbils, of course: she liked rhinos, wolves, and most of all the big cats. Lions, tigers and panthers, C.K. loved the way they looked and how they looked out for themselves. For the most part, she was happy, until she fell asleep.

The nightmares started when C.K. was seven, when her mother had to start working at different times for better money. At first, it was only a few times that she would wake up and call out in the dark, and Sheila would come to her room and tell her everything was okay. C.K. could go back to sleep then, and the rest of the night would be fine. Then, the dreams started to get worse. She saw all manner of horrible things: ghosts, ghouls, witches, werewolves, and worst of all an especially frightening creature with terrifying yellow eyes. C.K. would wake up, and the dreams would go away, but just around the time she turned nine there were times when she would see the horrible dream-monsters even after she’d woken up. She would scream for her mom, and sheila would come again and turn on the light and the monsters would disappear. When it started happening almost every night, Sheila would get angry and tell her daughter that she was way too grown-up to believe in such things. C.K. apologized, and tried to go back to sleep, but the nightmares wouldn’t stop, and to her they started to become more and more real.

After one-too-many nights of not enough sleep for either one of them, Sheila Barnes decided that something was very out of place and took C.K. to see a special doctor about her sleeping problems. The doctor asked C.K. all kinds of questions that made her feel uncomfortable. Was she having trouble at school? Was someone hurting her? Did she want to talk about her dad? C.K. answered all the questions because she knew the doctor was only trying to help her, but she could tell that he didn’t believe her when she told him about seeing the monsters while she was awake. He just said that her imagination and not enough sleep were causing her to see things that weren’t really there, and he suggested to her mother that C.K. take a special medication to calm her down before bed-time. That idea scared Sheila, and she told the doctor that C.K. was much too young to take pills to make her sleep; it wasn’t safe and they couldn’t afford them. They could find a way to help C.K. sleep on her own.

But the nightmares kept happening, and Sheila was out of ideas. When she started working at night, C.K. started sleeping at Mrs. Robins’ apartment. She was a very kind old English woman who lived down the hall, and C.K. grew to like her very much, even though she was old school. Mrs. Robins suggested a nightlight might help and it worked for a while. After only a few more weeks, though, even that wouldn’t stop the monsters from coming to C.K. in her dreams. She started trying to stay up at night, and she would drink lots of soda and sneak sugary things into her lunch during the day to stay awake. Sometimes it worked, but she just couldn’t keep up her energy forever. The sleepless nights were getting to her, and it was getting harder and harder for her to disguise it. When Mrs. Robins heard C.K.’s story, she got a worried look on her face that told C.K. she might believe her more than the doctor did, but she would only tell her it would be alright and not to worry. C.K. doubted her.

Then, a few days before C.K.’s tenth birthday, Mrs. Robins came up with a plan. Sheila liked the sound of it, and that’s how she ended up outside Zack’s Mega-Toys on a hectic Thursday evening.

Sheila was sure she had time enough to find what she was looking for, but Zack’s was the biggest toy store in the city and she had to find the perfect thing for Mrs. Robins’ idea to work. The way the place was built didn’t help her, either, since it was like a huge warehouse and none of the aisles were marked. She saw guns and planes of every kind, remote-controlled cars by the dozen, and every kind of doll, bike, sled, arts and crafts, Lego play set, and video game you could possibly imagine. Before she knew it, Sheila was completely turned around and realized that she’d already been in the store longer than she’d planned. Finally, she found a short, stocky man with a bald head and glasses at the far-end of an aisle, filling a shelf with wrestling figures. Seeing that he was wearing a name-tag, Sheila rushed over to him.

Excuse me, mister…. Charlie, Miss., he said, pointing to the tag with his name in bright red letters. I’m the floor manager here. What can I help you with today?

Sheila let out a breath of relief. I’m in a bit of a rush, and I’m really turned around. Could you show me where I can find an aisle with stuffed animals?

Charlie led her to aisle 15 and Sheila started to quickly scan the shelves for exactly the right toy. After a few seconds, she was getting discouraged and turned back to the manager. These are all cute, but they’re all too small for what I have in mind. I’m looking for one about this high, she said, holding her hand up to her hip.

Charlie looked back doubtfully. Well, Miss, those sizes sell out really quick since they’re a specialty item. We only have a few on the floor, but we may be able to special-order something by next week.

That wouldn’t be soon enough for the party Sheila had planned for C.K., and she was just starting to get desperate enough to buy one of the smaller animals and make do when she noticed something at the end of a row of beanie-babies. It looked like the end of a black plastic nose with a hint of whiskers and stripes on the edges. Both Sheila and Charlie walked down the aisle, but to their surprise they found themselves looking at the most curious stuffed cat either of them had ever seen. It had the face of a lion, but the mein was short and sleek, just like the rest of its body, which was long and stocky like a panther or a cougar. And it was green: pea-green, with stripes like a Bangle Tiger. The strangest things of all, though, were the eyes. Most stuffed cats have round doll’s eyes so they won’t look too scary. This out-of-place thing had what looked like a real cat’s eyes, which are shaped like small slits so they can see very clear and far at night. And, they were a bright sky-blue. Even Charlie, who knew the store well, wondered how such a misfit wound up on this shelf.

Ah, this one seems about the right size, at least, he puzzled, trying to make light of the situation.

Yeah, but it looks like some kind of mixed-up college art major got hold of him, Sheila replied.

They both laughed for a moment at the joke, but Sheila looked at her wrist-watch and saw that she was running much too late and needed to leave to make it to work. She glanced down the rest of the shelf, but there were no other cats anywhere near the right height.

I just don’t know. My daughter’s birthday is tomorrow, and this wasn’t… Tell you what, Charlie interrupted. It doesn’t look like this fellow’s too popular, considering he’s the last of his kind, he chuckled, So, if you’ll take him off our hands, I’ll give you a 10% store discount. If your little girl doesn’t like it, you can keep the receipt and bring it back when we’ve got something a little less, ah, exotic. Sound okay?

She didn’t seem to have much of a choice if she wanted a present for C.K. before tomorrow, so she agreed to take the mixed-up, pea-green stuffed cat for a marked-down price of $75.50. It was a lot of money for Sheila, but if this worked it would be worth it. She was worried for C.K.’s health, and she was willing to do whatever she could to help her sleep. Little did she realize how important that decision would prove to be.

2.

The Battle of Gladden Park

The next afternoon, C.K. was excited about her birthday and watched the traffic go passed the window of the city bus she took to and from school every day. She couldn’t wait to get home so her mom could take her to the party she had planned, but there was something she needed to take care of first: Simon Deacon.

Simon was almost twelve, but he was held back because of bad grades and stayed in C.K.’s class. She thought he was mean and dumb, smarting off to anyone he wanted to, especially girls. He singled out C.K. because she’d sometimes join in with the rest of the boys in pick-up basketball games at recess when one team was short a player. Just the week before, she and Simon were on opposite teams, and Simon was determined to make her look bad. C.K. wondered why, but she was soon too mad to care. He would try to embarrass her when she guarded him, holding the ball over her head and laughing when he charged passed her. C.K. was much quicker than most of the boys, though, and she was very good at making shots from three-point range, so she held her own.

The game was tied, with only a minute or two before the bell rang for class to start again, when C.K. started to feel tired. She’d felt it before, and knew she was in trouble. Lately, it was getting tougher and tougher to stay awake in class all the time. She would get a little sleep on the bus going to school in the morning, but it wasn’t always enough. All the Mountain Dews and candy-bars she’d been picking up at the convenience store down the block from school were giving her stomach-aches, but it was better than sleeping in class. That would mean a trip to the school councilor, then a phone-call to her mother, and maybe even a return trip to the doctor. That was the last thing she wanted: she would make it.

The ball was headed her way. It was almost in her hands, when Simon snatched it away with a laugh and a sneer. Hey, Flame-Head, lose something? he yelled as he got ready to flick the ball to his team-mate. With one last burst of energy, C.K. rushed in and made the steal just as Simon carelessly chucked the ball away. She swung her arm with all of her might toward the goal, bouncing the ball off the backboard right into her team-mate’s hands. One easy lay-up shot later, C.K.’s team was up by two points just as the bell rang to end the game. She laughed out loud at the shocked look on Simon’s face, and his older friends giving him a hard time for losing to a girl. C.K. felt Simon got what he deserved, but she soon wished the game had never happened.

Simon and a few of the other boys he hung out with started to give C.K. problems any time they ran into her. Wadded pieces of wet gum jammed into her locker door; spit-balls into her hair in the middle of the social studies quiz; even knocking books out of her hands any time they crossed paths in the hallways. C.K. took all the abuse for four days, mainly because she was so tired. Then finally Simon went too far. As she was crossing the cafeteria, Simon saw her coming and shot out his leg right between her feet. She stumbled over, spilling her tray-full of food all over the front of one of her favorite shirts. Did you miss your rebound, Kobe, he jeered, as the others laughed. C.K. struggled to keep from crying. She got to her knees, and noticed that her can of soda was only a few inches from her hand. Getting an idea, she grabbed it, held it in both hands, and shook it with all her strength with her back to Simon. Quick as a flash, she turned and pointed the top of the can straight at the older boy. When she opened it, half the soda in the can sprayed across Simon’s head and face, soaking his hair with sticky suds. Enjoy your shower, scarecrow? C.K. yelled.

Simon didn’t say anything, but jumped to his feet and got face-to-face with this angry girl who’d just given him a soda-bath in front of the whole school. C.K. clenched her fists and got ready for a fight, but only a second later she felt a huge hand grab her shoulder. It was Mr. Marsh, the big sixth-grade English teacher the kids sometimes called Bigfoot Bill because he was a beefy, six-and-a-half- foot giant who made even the tallest of C.K.’s classmates look like kindergarteners. The big man turned both Simon and C.K. irresistibly around to face him, then without saying anything more than, You two are coming with me, he led them down a long hallway to Ms. Brady’s office. She was the school councilor, and she was familiar with both students Bigfoot Bill guided through her door.

Hello, Mr. Marsh. What do we have here?, she said, with a sound in her voice like she might be able to guess. Simon and C.K. opened their mouths at the same time to offer their versions of what happened, but Bigfoot Bill’s thick base voice cut them off before they could make a sound.

These two just caused a major disturbance in the cafeteria, Ms. Brady. The boy tripped the girl and spilled her tray, and she shook up a Dr. Pepper can and, umm…, he took a glance at Simon, and C.K. thought for a moment it might be just possible he was holding back a giggle, …well, you can see the result pretty clearly, he finished. I saw the whole thing myself. And, since I think these two are regulars of yours… Thank you, Mr. Marsh, Ms. Brady said, you brought them to the right place. I’ll take it from here. Bigfoot Bill left the room, leaving the