Lionel was weaving through thick plumy smoke. Her eyes watered and her body moved on autopilot. It smelled acrid and sour in her nose, but the smoke itself was soft and warm to the touch. It was a vast landscape of nothing but grey cloudy space.

She could make out looming shapes swimming within the smoke itself. She tried to trace them with their eyes but they were too large and fast as they moved past in liquid motions. She was certain one of them was a shark, but one from a time when they were larger. Lionel kept moving, she knew she had to keep moving.

The world was utterly silent except a gentle melody she couldn’t place. It was as sweet as iced tea and trickled down her spine in the way a good song will. She followed it out past the shapes in the smoke and through the expanding plumes. Her eyes kept watering.

The tears were flowing down her cheeks freely now and the music was all around her. “Hello?” Her voice was thin and wain. “Where are you?”

A noise like a short bray came from behind her and Lionel whipped around to finally find the thing that had been calling her. She opened her eyes.

Lionel had to blink several times to get her bearings and right herself quickly as she recognized the trees and yellow grasses outside. There were oak trees and low bushes and the birds were singing overhead.

Lionel groaned and rubbed her face with both hands. She looked down at herself and she was still in her polka dot pajamas. “Again?” She whispered to herself. “Really?” The forest was all around her and the early morning sun was just now sweeping the land.

It always happened on her days off. It always happened when she finally got a good night's rest.

She had been sleepwalking. Lionel dusted herself off and turned around in circles until she heard the rumbling of cars in the distance and began to walk in that direction. She listened carefully for the cars as well as any twigs breaking or rustling in the bushes.

There weren’t any large predators that she knew of in the woods, but she listened to enough True Crime to avoid being caught off guard in nothing but her PJs. She looked over her shoulder toward and realized she was deeper this time than the last one. She was getting deeper into the woods with each dream.

Lionel quickly found her way toward the road and the strip of apartment buildings that she lived in. The trip only took her about ten minutes, but the moment she took a step out of the woods the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her breath caught in her throat.

Lionel twisted around. The dark of the woods stared back at her and she swore for a moment there were a pair of eyes there-- dark and shiny and depthless.

Lionel turned around again and bolted toward her home and safety. Something rustled just behind her, but did not give chase. 

Perhaps this was another sign she needed to leave Nolan, West Virginia as quickly as possible.

-------------------

Lionel reclined back on a plush chair in a small cramped living room. It smelled like lavender oil and herbal tea brewing from the kitchen. An older woman sat cross-legged in front of a television with her back to Lionel and an upright posture. She had wavy brown hair with huge chunks of snowy white streaks in it, weathered sun-kissed skin with a few laugh lines, and a floral shirt that hung off her bony frame.

“I left the box on the table.” Lionel said before stretching out. “You hear me, ma? It’s in the kitchen.” She prompted again without giving her mom much time to respond.

Her mom twitched in place. “Thank you,” she said and then patted the ground next to her. “You’re off for today, yes?”

“Yep. One day off to plan my next hostile takeover of the Walmart for cash."

Her mom sighed. “Why don’t you join me in my afternoon meditation?” She offered before turning back to the television where another woman sat on a yoga mat. The woman’s eyes were gently closed and her chest visibly rising and falling. Serene music played in the background.

Lionel wrinkled her nose. “Does that junk actually work?”

Her mom took deep even breaths. “Well, it can’t hurt,” she glanced over her shoulder with one eye. “And you look like a mess. Do you need to borrow some of my under eye cream?”

Lionel stiffened, “Thanks ma.”

“Have you been sleepwalking again? I told you to go to a specialist about that.”

Lionel rolled her eyes. Her mom always did have a sixth sense about things when it came to her daughter. “It’s not that bad.” Lionel scratched her wrist absently. “Besides, I’m saving my money. I don’t have the budget to go to some sleep-quack.”

“Saving for that trip of yours?”

“For school.” She puffed her cheeks out. It was also for the trip, but her mom didn’t need to know that right now.

Her mom clicked her tongue and reached to turn off the television. She turned toward her and cocked her head to the side. “Have you chosen yet what you even want to study?”

Lionel was quiet and averted her eyes to the side.

“You can’t really wanna go to school without a major, honey.” She said and slowly stood up. “Save your money for your trip or a doctor--”

“I don’t want to go to a doctor, ma.”

“Well I don’t want you sleepwalking into one of these lakes one day!” She tutted. “You worry me.”

“Everything worries you.” Lionel grumbled and scuffed a foot across the carpet.

Her mom exhaled and then tapped the side of her nose. “Not if this meditation course does the trick!” She sang softly and chuckled.

“Well, I brought your gardening junk.” She stood up. “I’ll visit again when--”

“Sit, sit,” Her mom ushered her back into the chair before taking a seat across from her on the couch. “You rarely come and visit me nowadays.”

“I see you at least twice a week!”

Her mom pouted. “I remember when you were a little girl and you would beg to sit in my lap all the time. You would go ‘ma, I want to be where you are.’ You used to beg to sit with me in the front seat of the car and it was all I could do to get you off my lap when I was driving.”

“I get it, I get it.” Lionel said with a huff. “It’s always good to see you, ma.”

Her mom reached over and patted her hand. “Did you dream of anything when you went walking? I have my handy book right here.” She pointed to a blue book with a golden owl on the front.

Lionel rolled her eyes. “You know I don’t believe in that type of thing,” she sighed, “And no. Nothing special.” Just smoke and music and large shapeless forms just beyond my view. But that wasn’t special.

“Fine, no dream interpretation.” Her mom put her hands up as she was being arrested. “Tell me about work then. Any cute customers?”

Lionel really rolled her eyes now. “No, ma.”

“Any cute coworkers?”

“No!”

Her mom reached over to pat her hand again. “You know when I was your age I was already married and had you on the way.”

And look how that turned out. Lionel didn’t say that out loud as she glanced at her mom’s naked ring finger.

“There’s no one.” Lionel said, though a pair of the large brown eyes flashed through her mind’s eye. She pushed that strange feeling aside. “I don’t wanna be dating right now.”

“Oh, honey,” Her mom touched her cheek. “I know that boy Williams hurt you something fierce--”

“It didn’t hurt.”

“But you can’t be following him off to college just to go chasing rainbows.”

Lionel growled in the back of her throat. “That’s not what I want to go to school for!” She jerked to her feet, “Your box is on the table. I’m headed out now.”

“Lionel,” Her mom stood up with her. “I just want to connect. I’ll support you no matter what, but life is expensive. Everything is always expensive.”

Lionel’s eyes prickled. “I know that, okay? I just . . . I have dreams. I’m going to get out of Nolan. I’m going to make my own way in the world. I don’t need anyone’s help with that.” She turned to leave just as her mom called after her.

“Remember to keep your heart open,” Her mom said in her usually sappy manner. “You never know which stranger might start to crawl in.”

Lionel groaned and walked out the door without discussing the fact she had been sleepwalking into the woods every other night. For a moment she wished to go a cigarette, for another moment she reached into her pocket and found a crumpled receipt there.

She forgot she had kept it. She stared at the doodle for a long time and suddenly wished she was back at the diner of all places.