Dangerous Dreams: A Novel (131 page)

A half hour later, Allie and Nancy sat together, held hands, stared silently into each other’s eyes, glanced at the lockets, the pipe, the pictures, pondered all that had happened since the dreams began. Allie said, “Mom, I wonder how the lockets and pipe got to Ian and Great-Great-Grandpa . . . what happened to them over four hundred years of American history . . . where they’ve been . . . who’s held them, cherished them. Mom . . . I’ve got to know.”

Nancy studied her daughter with deep, knowing eyes. “Allie, Hon, I think you’re going to find out.”

Alone in her room, Allie looked down at the lockets and vision pipe dangling from her neck, imagined centuries of wild adventures that had brought them to her great-great-grandparents. Suddenly, an impulse commanded her to turn off the light. She did so, walked to the window, stared out at a black sky filled with so many stars the Milky Way looked like a solid strip of white from horizon to horizon.

In the ten minutes Allie stared blindly at the stars, thinking of Emily, seeing her together with Isna, she missed four shooting stars but noticed the first glow of the three-quarter moon as it peeked over the eastern horizon. She stood at the window for another half hour, watched the moon and its bright companion star rise slowly into the sky. As she held Emily’s locket to her cheek, she closed her eyes, begged to see Emily again. “Emily, wherever you are, I love you . . . will always love you.”

And then, as if in a dream, a misty scene appeared in her mind. Emily, in her doeskin dress, stepped slowly toward her from the mist, stopped,
stared into her eyes with a warm, loving smile, extended her arm toward her as if handing her something, then slowly faded back into the mist.

Allie stood motionless, eyes closed. No, Em! Don’t go! Pleeease don’t go. Come back to me . . . please come back . . . let me see you again; I miss you so. Eyes still closed, she held both hands over the lockets and pipe at her heart, savored the vision of Emily; she then sadly opened her eyes, turned on the lamp, stepped toward the bed. But she immediately stopped, stared straight ahead through a gush of bittersweet tears when she saw why Emily had come. On her pillow, like a precious, pink gem glistening on a blanket of snow, lay Emily’s first flower of spring.

EPILOGUE

T
he basic historical events presented in this story, up to the time of John White’s departure, as well as what he found upon his return in 1590, are true, including Manteo’s visits to England, the circumstances and details of the elder George Howe’s death, the accidental attack on friendly Croatans, the Spanish visit to Roanoke, and the Powhatan prophecy of doom. It is also true that the Powhatans annihilated the Chesapeakes out of fear of the prophecy, though the exact date is unknown. All English character names were taken from the actual Roanoke manifest; but all connections between those names and the events of this story, other than as stated above, are fictional.

Dangerous Dreams
incorporates elements of six prevalent theories regarding the Lost Colony: that some escaped to Croatan Island and assimilated with the Croatan Indians; that the entire colony fled to the Chesapeake Bay area, only to be annihilated by the Powhatans; that the colonists likely considered moving inland from Roanoke Island and could have done so; that the colony was destroyed by a hurricane; that Spanish forces found and destroyed the colony; and that there was a conspiracy to undermine the colony and foster its failure.

The Lakota, or Sioux, in fact lived in the Ohio Valley until approximately the arrival of Columbus in the New World in 1492, at which time they migrated northwest to the area near present day Mille Lac, Minnesota, near
the western shore of Lake Superior and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. They remained there until they moved west to the Missouri River in the early 1730s, then finally crossed the Missouri and moved onto the Great Plains after obtaining the horse from the Cheyenne tribe in the latter part of the 1700s. It is equally well known that before the white man, tribes from all over North America, including the Great Lakes region, traveled and traded throughout the continent for items they valued but did not have where they lived.

Viking explorers discovered North America and made several attempts to settle there around AD 1000, and possibly earlier. Some hypothesize that because they settled near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River at L’Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland, they could have explored the Great Lakes via portages and the rivers that join the lakes. Viking artifacts, some of arguable authenticity, have been discovered in Minnesota and Wisconsin, adding to the curiosity, if not the credibility, of these hypotheses.

The scientific theories presented in
Dangerous Dreams
—such as activation synthesis, morphic resonance, formative causation, the individual and collective unconscious, atavism, Lamarckian inheritance, and genetics— are legitimate theories with credible advocates and varying degrees of validation. The author believes that the fact that mankind’s body of proven knowledge regarding dreams—why and how they happen, where they come from, and what they mean—is so remarkably scant that until disproven, all such theories remain in the mix. Accordingly,
Dangerous Dreams
weaves a logical, creative tapestry of explanatory fact, theory, and imagination into Allie O’Shay’s dream characteristics. And while the author makes no assertions as to the validity of any theory, or Allie’s gift, when one studies these theories, even at an elemental level, it is impossible not to imagine that someday some of them might be proven—in part or in whole.

Emily Colman never returned to Virginia, nor did Virginia Dare. But both lived full, happy lives with the Lakota; and over the next four hundred years, Emily and Isna’s descendants—the many brown and white fawns—spread
across North America. And as for Allie, it was not at all obvious how both of the Colmans’ lockets came to be in her great-great-grandmother’s possession. In fact, it took her a lifetime of dangerous dreams and adventures to discover the truth. And the truth was not at all what she at first supposed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I
n
Dangerous Dreams
, Mike Rhynard integrated technical writing experience from careers as a test pilot, aerospace engineer, and consultant; lifetime experiences gained in combat, cattle ranching, and primitive survival instructing; a lifelong love of American history; and a deep admiration for Native American heritage and spirituality. He then enriched and enlivened the blend with a passionate desire to present the past in the exciting, personal manner in which it occurred.

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