CHAPTER 1

It seemed as if the road was stretching ahead of them endlessly. The air washeavy with the humidity of summer, and the relentless sun rays poundingonto the windshield didn't prevent Dan and Malou from enjoying their driveback to their home in Davie. They were returning from visiting their son,Stefano, who was a junior at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Parting from him again was difficult, but after seeing how happy he wasand acknowledging the fact that their son was becoming his own man now,Malou and Dan were delighted with the two days they had spent with him. Attwenty-two, Stefano not only looked like his father, but had his determinedcharacter trait and his hard work at school mirrored Dan's attitude toward lifeperfectly. Stefano, in his third year of university, had already made the dean'slist, to the pride of his parents. Mind you, his stubbornness accounted for alot of his progress or success in everything he did – just like his dad.

As for Malou, a very alluring woman in her late forties, she was a fantasticmother; her whole world revolving around her home, her children and herhusband. Although known for being disorganized, she managed to keep thefamily home immaculate and its surroundings pleasant to the eye.

"How about we take highway 27 down to Okeechobee Lake instead of the otherway?" Dan asked Malou as soon as they passed the turn-off near Orlando.

She turned her lovely face to him. "Feeling adventurous, are you?" Herblack, silky hair seemed to be dancing on the curls cascading down to hershoulders.

"Something like that, yes," Dan replied, throwing her a smile full ofmischief. Nearly fifty by then, Dan had kept his adolescent face and muscularstature in check. There was no denying the fact that Dan was a handsome man.His piercing and intelligent gaze complemented the gentle but square jaw linewithout highlighting the decisiveness that lied just below the surface of hismanners. "Besides, we have time – nothing waiting for us at home – and I'dlike to see if we could find a nice little place to have dinner ..."

"Wow, where does that come from? Don't you like my cooking anymore?"Malou asked, all tease.

He threw her another brief smile. "You know I love your cooking, butI think you deserve to be treated to a summer night at the terrace of a niceristorante."

"But, Hon, this isn't Italy, you know – where are we going to find a ristorantearound here, you think?"

"We'll see ..., maybe we'll be surprised and if not, we'll go home and haveone of your wonderful lasagnas – how's that?"

Highway 27 afforded the travelers with gorgeous scenery of the evergladesand sugar plantations, which reminded the couple of their lives in Pennsylvaniawhere their home was up on a hill, and where their kids enjoyed sleigh ridesduring winter and hay rides during fall. The sugar plantations that stretchedto the horizon were very similar to the corn plantations they remembered inthe days they lived in Bethlehem.

The afternoon drive was nothing short of glorious. As soon as they veeredoff and took the road that skirted Okeechobee Lake, Dan slowed the car downto a speed that allowed them to take a peek at the lake stretching in the distancebeside the highway. This piece of water, seemingly plopped in the middle ofthe everglades, was the host of numerous birds and all kinds of aquatic life.Its freshness provided a welcome relief to the searing heat of the day. Danand Malou couldn't stop smiling for some reason – the landscape was simplypeaceful and inexplicably tranquil.

After driving for a while they arrived in Pahokee. Bordering the lake, thistiny town community featured many seemingly abandoned houses, a smallmarina, and a very old hotel called Chippewa Inn, standing along a dirt andgravel track-like road – its rusted sign swinging lazily above the door. In frontof it, there were some locals drinking beer in the middle of the afternoon,children riding their bicycles, and a black cat with a white patch atop its head,was lying on the sill of a dirty window that seemed as if no one had cleaned itin decades. Above it, there was a sign in neon lights that read "Vacancy".

They stopped in front of it and decided to take a stroll around the town,curious to visit St. Mary's Church they had seen nestled among shrubbery andtall palms, going down Main Street.

Looking up at the hotel sign, Dan said, "You know, Hon, I've readsomewhere something about the Chippewa legend."

"Oh yeah, and what did it say?"

"Well, the Indians around here believed that night was full of both goodand bad dreams. When a dream catcher was hung above the place where youslept it would move freely in the night air and catch the dreams as they driftedby. They said that the good dreams, knowing their way, passed through theopening in the center of the web while the bad dreams, not knowing the way,were caught in it and destroyed at first light."

"So you think they've got a woven web of some kind hanging over the bedsin here?" Malou asked, visibly horrified at the thought.

Dan laughed, imagining a gigantic web stretched over their bed. "Thatwould be scary, you're right." He grimaced and his face suddenly contortinginto a fierce, devilish mask, he growled, "`Come to my parlor, said the spider to thefly' ..." and burst out in more laughter.

"You're impossible, Dan – and please don't scare me like that. I'd be sureto dream of being caught in a spider web tonight."

"Sorry, Hon, but it might be interesting to see if they've got some smallwebbing displayed in the hotel. Do you want to go in?"

"No, not really ..." Malou stopped talking suddenly, her gaze arrestedon an old Seminole Indian, with sad-looking eyes, who sat quietly beside thehotel's entrance, carving a figure with a small knife. A sign that read "$5.00per person" swiveled on some sort of easel standing next to him. The signappeared to be as old as the man – the lettering faded with age. It looked likethe Indian charged the same price today for whatever service he was offeringyears ago. The wind moved the sign rhythmically, but Dan and Malou couldn'tstop staring at it, and at a group of scenery paintings from different parts ofthe US, leaning against the wall beside his chair.

Curious as ever, Malou and Dan approached the Indian, who was singingin his native language.

"Excuse me, sir, we could not stop admiring your display and would liketo know what you are offering."

Smiling up at them, the old man explained in English laced of a strongAmerican Indian accent, that he was offering a dream journey of their choice."You will select the scenery painting that best describes the time and locationyou lived at the time you want to go back, and I will help your imaginationtake you there."

Being a realistic man and college educated, it was hard for Dan to believeit would be possible, but he thought it might be an interesting experience, evenif nothing of it came true. Besides, $5.00 could barely buy you a gallon of gas these days,he mused.

So he asked Malou, "Do you want to try?"

Very reluctant, since she felt such thing was a waste of money, and probablya scam, she only gave in to her sense of charity. For some reason, she wantedto help the old man.

The Indian fellow then proceeded to explain that once they selecteda picture that best described the time and place where they wanted theirimagination to take them, he would give them instructions on what to do next.

"Now, once you're ready," he went on, "you both must hold each other'shands and walk towards the painting together to allow the journey to begin,and once you are on the other side, you must do the same and since, on theother side, there is no painting, you must remember the spot where you botharrived, so you could reverse the journey."

And again he repeated his warning that Malou and Dan needed to pickthe same spot to return, since it was the only way back. "The duration of yourdream will only last seven days, but your present time will start where you leftoff, so you will still be able to come back here at the same time you left." Thenhe also mentioned that once they came back, they could never go back to thattime and location, ever. And finally he warned them, "if you stay longer, youwill never be able to return again and both your past and present lives willforever vanish."

Everything sounded a bit Sci-fi to Dan, and extremely weird to Malou. Yet,they had plenty of time and it wasn't like they were in a rush to get home.

"Okay, let's do this, Malou," Dan said, pulling his wallet out of his frontpocket.

"Well"—Malou was still hesitant—"if you're sure ..., I guess I'll go alongwith it."

They paid the old man his fee, which he pocketed before standing up andopening a box that he pulled out from under his chair.

Under Malou and Dan's puzzled faces, the old Indian then took outtwo necklaces out of the metal box and put the leather strap around each oftheir necks on which hung an amulet carved in wood that he called "a dreamcatcher".

"Looks much nicer than your spider web," Malou remarked, giggling atDan.

Obviously handmade, with gorgeous detailed work, the amulet was sointricate and even delicate to the touch that Dan couldn't stop admiring it.

"Did you see how much details it's got?" he asked, turning to Malou butstill peering down to the amulet.

"Very nice, isn't it?" Malou agreed, passing her fingers over her ownpendant. "If nothing else, five bucks for this was well worth the price." Sheraised her eyes to her husband.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I loveyou, Malou," he said, before releasing her and turning to the old Indian onceagain.

Smiling at the both of them, he gave them one last warning advice. "Do notlose the amulets and wear them always in order to deter evil. Without them,"he said, "you can never come back."

Since Dan had seen these amulets before, but had no clue what they werefor, he asked, "Can you tell us what they do – I mean do they have power overevil then?"

The old man looked up at Dan and frowned. "Yes. They catch bad dreamswhile good dreams are allowed to pass through, but this is not your ordinarydream catcher, since you will be wearing it, and you are not to ever lose it ifyou want your soul to remain pure of bad evil. You must not lose it, and if youcome back without it, very bad things will happen to you and your family."

Dan looked at Malou with a grin on his face. He really wanted to laugh – thiswas worse than envisioning the spider web over their bed – but by respectfor the old man, he maintained his composure and went along with him.

At this point, Malou and Dan were ready; hand in hand, they walkedtowards the painting that best depicted their lives 13 years ago.

CHAPTER 2

Dan had to admit the whole experience promised to be unique, howeverridiculous it sounded at the outset. He was convinced it would neverwork.

As they started walking towards the painting, hand in hand, they focusedon the scenery depicted in the picture – the house resembled theirs in Bethlehem,almost in every detail. The front yard was punctuated with pine trees thatpartly hid the driveway up the hill, and the façade of their home looked verymuch the same, too. It was strange; the nearer they came to the painting, thenearer they felt to their house, as if literally crossing the street in front of it.

Their bodies pressed against the painting now, they began to feel lighterand lighter, and lights began to flash back and forth, along with fog and windsblowing from different directions. Then, all of a sudden, everything stopped.

They were on the other side. Instinctively, they turned around, but therewas nothing else to see – only the street they had just crossed.

Malou and Dan, still holding hands, looked at each other, very surprisedsince they were both confused as to where they were. They started lookingaround. Although they were not standing in front of their house, as they firstexpected, the place looked very familiar.

Malou said to Dan, "Is this real? Are we really back in time? Are you inmy dream or am I in your dream?"

So many questions, but then it hit them; they were actually living a truedream. Not sure if people could see them or not, they decided to go to theclosest store they found and, to their astonishment, yes, they were really here,they were as alive as they were back in Pahokee minutes ago, but in whatappeared to be their old town of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. The sidewalk, theshops, the grocery store, the coffee shop – everything was the same as it hadbeen thirteen years ago. They went into the nearby drugstore, curiosity gnawingat their minds, and began looking around the shelves, aisles and counters. Danwalked past a mirror and, to his amazement, he saw his reflection exactly theway he looked thirteen years back – same clothes, same haircut and everything.He soon realized that he was not only back in time, but inside the body he hadthen. And Malou also looked the same as she did then.

The dream catcher was still around their necks, intact, the way it lookedwhen the old man gave it to them, but that was the only thing that remainedthe same.

"How strange this whole thing is," Dan said to Malou, "We are back intime in our own selves, so that means we can actually go home and live our oldlives. I just wonder how our kids will see us, and if they will notice anythingdifferent. Or wait ..., are we going to meet our selves or did we enter our bodies13 years ago?"

Since they were back in time, their children, Stefano was only 9, Daniel7 and Gaby 4.

Wow, how beautiful to see them so young again, being able to hug them and kiss them andbeing able to make up for the time, the time I was always away from them, Dan thought.

When they began walking toward their beautiful home, they soon saw itthe same way as it looked thirteen years previously. Dan's best friend, Dante,and Heath, his cousin, were there in the front yard, talking.

Heath and Dante both lived with Dan and Malou in their house and forDan, it was such a great pleasure seeing them – they looked also so young.

When Dan and Malou came up the steps, Dante and Heath said, "Hi,"as if they had just seen the couple earlier in the day. It was pretty obvious theyhad noticed nothing, as if the two were never gone, or were they? None of thesethings made any sense to him, but Dan was actually happy that they were there.Malou looked like a child with a new toy, running around the house, fixingthings and preparing a feast for everyone.

Daniel, Gaby and Stefano must have been still at school since it was earlyafternoon when Dan and Malou arrived. The school bus would bring themaround 3:00 pm and drop them off in front of the house, so it gave Maloutime to do her thing without having to stop what she was doing to go pickthem up.

While looking around the house, Malou and Dan realized that it wasOctober 31, 2000 – Halloween Night – and just six days before Dan's skiingaccident.

As if reading each other's mind, "Only six days before it happened," Malouremarked.

"Yeah, I wonder if we could prevent it from happening," Dan saidpensively.

"Maybe, since you're well aware of how it happened, you could avoid goingdown that slope and take another one."

Dan shrugged and looked down at his feet. "I don't think it's a matter ofchoosing another slope ..."—he raised his eyes to Malou—"I think it was mydestiny to have that accident. Even if I had stayed in town that day, I believethat I would have had an accident of some kind."

"Maybe you're right, but in any case, we should have asked the old manabout that – I mean about changing what happened – maybe he could havetold us what to do."

"I don't know, Malou," Dan replied, taking his wife in a tender embrace."Changing anything in our past may affect our future, but if there was anyway I could avoid that accident, without changing our entire future, I would,believe me."

"There was too much pain, Dan, and it did change our lives," Malouwhispered in his ear. "I don't think I'd want to live through that again."