1 The Dream Rider Read Free

in the Pacific Northwest called
Walla Walla, Washington. I teased him constantly about how the name of his
hometown was so fun to say. His father had been a fisherman most of his life
before retiring to the quiet little location. His mother was still a
schoolteacher in an elementary school near their home. Nate was studying
Psychology out of pure curiosity, while I majored in it. It happened to be one
of the classes we had in common.
    “You doing okay, Finn?” he asked, brushing back his
semi-long blonde hair. “You seem a little off today.”
    I shook my head but didn’t reply immediately. Not wanting
to sound insane, I wasn’t sure what I should tell him and what I shouldn’t.
    “I’ve just got a few things on my mind,” I said, blowing
off the race of thoughts going on in my head.
    “I guess so,” he responded, not pursuing the line of
question any further. “Look, if it’s about last night’s football game, don’t
worry about it. You had a lot of good catches, played solid defense. It happens
to everyone.”
    I bit my lower lip and tried to force a grin. The dropped
pass that would have won the game played through my memory for a second.
    “Nah,” I rebutted his theory. “I’m fine with that. Just
thinking about other stuff. It’s no big deal.”  
    We reached a long staircase that led up the hill to the Psych
building and started the laborious ascent.
    I figured I might as well ask him about the strange
occurrence with my computer screen from earlier. “Hey, were you messing around
with my computer this morning?”
    He was visibly caught off guard by the random question.
“What do you mean?” he frowned.
    “I mean, like, remotely. Were you screwing with my
computer from your dorm room or down in the commons?”   There was the crazy part I was trying to avoid. And it got
the look I’d expected it would.
    He laughed as he answered. “No, man. Hacking your
computer? Even if I knew how to do that stuff to mess with you, I wouldn’t do
it at 7:30 in the morning. So, someone was messing with your stuff?”
    “I don’t know,” I blew it off in an attempt to look less
mental. “My computer was acting funny earlier, like someone else was
controlling it.”
    He raised his eyebrows. “What happened, exactly? Mouse
moving around on its own or something?”
    “Nothing,” I lied. “The screen went black, and I couldn’t
get it to come back on. That’s all.”   I wasn’t about to tell him the message that had mysteriously appeared on
the monitor.
    He shrugged. “It happens sometimes. My computer shuts down
for no reason then the screen comes back on without warning. Technology is
great when it works. When it doesn’t—” his voice trailed off.
    I forced a quick laugh at his last comment even though it
did little to settle my nerves. Someone had broken into my computer and it
wasn’t Nate. But if not him, who? I ran through the short list of people I knew
on campus and in the dorm. I didn’t think I had pissed anyone off recently.
Being average had its advantages. It meant that I never really had any enemies.
I guess it also meant that no one really found me super-interesting, which
explains why my list of acquaintances was so short. A strange feeling came over
me as I realized I’d run through the same rationale during my dream. I shook it
off and kept walking. A swirl of fallen leaves rushed by us as we continued our
ascent.
    “I wouldn’t worry about it,” he continued. “Those kinds of
things happen. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
    I nodded, faking agreement. I couldn’t tell him about the
message. He would probably ask what I’d been smoking or make some other
wisecrack.
    “You going to the party tonight?” he asked, changing the
subject.
    I shook my head. “I doubt it, man. I don’t really feel
like it. Got a lot of studying to catch up on,” I lied again, at least about
the studying part.
    “Dude,” he stopped and turned to me, grabbing both my
shoulders. We had