The Dream Thief by Kari Kilgore (books for 10th graders txt) 📕

The two women followed George out the front door, and Gemma immediately looked up.

"Is that the welcoming committee?" she said.

She didn't sound the least bit afraid. More curious and happy.

"You could say that, I suppose." George smiled at Karl. "That one's up there pretty often."

Gemma looked at Loretta, who half shrugged and nodded.

"He's lovely, isn't he?" the older woman said.

"Sure. Nice eyes," Loretta said. "Any friends hanging around?"

"Not so far," Karl said. "George says nothing out here can get through the fence. I think it's more curious than anything."

Loretta caught her grandmother's hands.

"We won't test that any more than we have to. Right, Gemma?"

Gemma smiled in a way that didn't do a thing to calm Karl's nerves.

"Of course not, bobbin. I'll have plenty to do getting the house ready and working on Karl's project, not to mention your next one."

Loretta put her arm around Gemma, taking care not to look at Karl.

"Yes, let's not mention that," she said. "Let's get back so we can move your things out here to paradise."

Chapter 46

Faster than any of them would have believed possible, Gemma settled into the house, and Karl and Loretta settled into a routine. After a couple of weeks, her staying in his apartment on weekends and him visiting the old caretaker’s house a night or two during the week started to feel normal.

He caught himself wondering when they would pass from not knowing what was going on between them to figuring out what the next step was. Long-term plans he'd never imagined with anyone else drifted though his mind when he wasn't keeping such things under control.

One thing that never quite felt normal was smuggling Loretta and her repaired gyro-compass and Dragon in to visit patients on the weekends.

"Can you feel a difference in any of them?" Karl said several days into their experiments. "How they work with you, I mean?"

He and Loretta were leaving Mr. Otis's room after their third time Building with him.

"He's more, I don't know, receptive, maybe?" she said. "He was always cooperative, but he's halfway into a Builder's trance the second he sees me. And he's been influencing the Builds."

"Builders never do that when they're awake," Karl said. "At least that's what I hear from my family. Is that unusual during the night?"

"The only time they really do that, or did, was when it was the thing they'd ordered. Then I could feel them making tiny adjustments, things they hadn't thought to mention to me. If it was just a Build for someone else, they just Built it as I sent it."

"How is it with Mr. Otis?" Karl said.

"So far we've just done simple things like jewelry," she said. "You've seen it. We haven't lost a Build since Gemma set up her target at her house. Mr. Otis likes to adjust the colors, mainly. He'll change ruby earrings to sapphire, or make the shape more symmetrical. Should I try to enforce the rules like I do with the others?"

Karl concentrated on his feet, trying to dodge puddles in the wetter-than-usual tunnel. He didn't want to force anything on Mr. Otis or any of the other patients. He was already worried enough about how patients in close-by rooms seemed more upset, not less, when he and Loretta visited.

So far every single person they'd focused on had been helped by Building, mania or madness held at bay for a time. They had never revisited Mrs. Labine or any of the others he suspected were sent here by Loretta's nighttime visits. He'd been wondering how he could possibly present any of this to the medical staff, especially with such large gaps in their research.

"Not just yet," he said. "I want to learn how to try it myself first, just to see if another person can do it."

"Have other people noticed the changes in them?" Loretta said. "Since we started all of this?"

"Sure. I have. Other nurses, too." Karl nodded, ticking through all their subjects in his mind. "The doctors are fairly predictable in thinking a change in medication they never actually made is suddenly working. But yeah, other nurses have talked about how much calmer all of them are."

Loretta stopped, catching Karl's hand and pulling him into a kiss. His breathing and his body responded as strongly as the first time, far in the air above the Northlands.

"I'm glad of that, Karl, truly. I'd bet we'll see the same when you get started."

"When do you think that will be?" He'd resisted asking so far, but his impatience was getting the best of him.

"I think Gemma will be done in a day or two," she said. "Once she got the fire going and the air cleaned up, she's been working nonstop on your Dragon. It won't be long. I promise."

Karl climbed up the ladder closest to his rooms, stopping long enough to check the corridor.

"All clear," he said. "Do we need to get lunch for Gemma today?"

"She's eaten just about everything in that house, so that would be a great help. Listen, Karl, have you seen anything? Any investigations?"

"Nothing so far," he said. "Not after those reports that he was missing in the gossip pages. Nothing on the talkbox yet. I'm sure if they'd found traces we would have heard about it by now."

"They're not going to find any traces," Loretta said. "Bess has gone by the house a few times to check, but no one's been inside." She closed the door to Karl's rooms, then sat on the couch. "I need to talk to you about something before you get lunch."

Karl sat beside her, and he wasn't quite reassured when she took his hand.

"Why does that sound ominous to me?"

"Don't panic. This is just business." Loretta kissed his cheek. "I need to make some deliveries, Karl. A few of these orders have been out for almost a month now. You heard what Mr. Norwood said. That was what got him stirred up in the first place."

"Deliveries you've already Built?" he said. "I didn't