In Between Dreams Read Free Page A

comforted her. Once she put the DVD in the player, she made herself comfortable in bed, sitting cross-legged, surrounded by pillows, and she continued to eat her sandwiches. Her dad would have scolded her for eating in bed. He would’ve hated to see her lie down while eating, the least she could do was sit up.
    When Bailey was thirteen, long before she had a sleep disorder, her father died in a car accident and left her and her mother to press on without him. It was no secret that she and her mother never had gotten along, but his death really pulled them together. Bailey’s disease was another adhesive that pulled them closer. Now here they were, closer than ever because of all the shitty things that had happened to them. The irony was not lost on Bailey.
    When she finished her sandwiches, she stretched across the bed and watched the movie, holding a pillow close to her chest. She hoped this dream sequence would be over soon. She needed to get back to work, get back to life, and get back to…everything.
    Her job
. She remembered her boss, Sierra, for a moment; Bailey had promised she would keep her informed, and she hadn’t told her yet that she’d been in the middle of a sleep attack. She groaned and grabbed the remote to pause the movie. She grabbed her BlackBerry and searched for Sierra’s number and clicked “call.” She felt her eyes droop but fought the urge and stood up to walk over to the window.
    “What?” Sierra answered the phone with her average “I’m busy” attitude. She had the slightest Latino accent that only came out fully when she was drinking. Or angry. She often yelled at her employees in Spanish if they were late on a deadline.
    “Hey,” Bailey said. Her voice came out weakly because of her weariness. “I think I’ll be able to get that investigative report on the Chinese organized crime in Seattle to you next Friday. I didn’t realize I was going to go into a sleep attack so soon.”
    “I figured,” Sierra said in a matter of fact way. “I really liked what you have so far, but I need a little more bulk. Give me some flesh to thestory. I’ll give you a couple little stories next week, reviews and shit, to make up for this week,” she promised Bailey.
    Bailey pushed the blinds apart with her index and middle fingers to look at the wet streets of Seattle. She lived in Queen Anne Hill, which was in the northwest corner of the city. She could see the Space Needle from her roof, but from her window, all she could see were brick buildings and lush greenery. Bailey loved her city.
The thing about Seattle not everyone understands is even though it rains every day, it makes for one of the most beautiful places in the United States
, she thought warmly. “Thank you, S. I really appreciate it.”
    Bailey looked at the used bookstore across the street and strained her eyes to see if she could see any new books in the window. She went there twice a week and the owner normally let her trade in books for new (
used
) ones. The rain was too thick on the windows, and she couldn’t tell the contents in the window. She sighed as a bus passed by, making the swooshing sound that occurs when motor vehicles speed in the rain. The bus screeched to a halt and let three people in before swooshing away.
    “Oh, don’t get mushy on me. Give me
flesh
on this article. Did you hire a photographer yet or do you want me to get you one? Did you see James’s last story? He’s getting good. I want you to shadow him next week. So…the photographer?” Sierra often ran her sentences into each other. She wouldn’t wait for an answer to the first question before she asked the second.
    Working at the
Seattle Times
had its perks. She was able to hire her friend for all of her photography. She could do her own thing, and she didn’t have to go into the office every day. She was one of the few people with the flexibility that Sierra gave her. Bailey got the job during a relatively slow year (slow when it came to her