“I bet they'll stay in place now.”

Shiori steps down from the chair, gasping slightly, and for a second she grins at me. I nod back at her. She's better at arranging flowers than I am, so I pass the beautifully scented white tulips over to her, one by one. Even now she's arranging them, ever so carefully. . . .

I awoke with a start.

“What?” I cried, and sprang up in bed, naked.

Shiori . . . wasn't there.

But it had been so vivid! Suddenly I'd just tumbled down into some place that wasn't the place I'd been in, and there was a man sleeping next to me. The night was dark, the room was steeped in gray. The headlights of the cars driving past under the window looked bleary.

I sat gazing at my surroundings for a moment, and felt myself zooming back toward reality. The force of that dream had been so great that my head was booming with pain, and everything my eyes settled on seemed like a lie. Only the feeling that I'd just been back with Shiori seemed real.

I understood. Finally I felt as though I really understood what it was all about. To have someone sleep next to me—that was exactly what I needed. It was perfect for people like me. If Shiori had been lying next to me, there was no doubt at all that she'd have ended up having a dream just like the one I'd had, powerful and hot. A second reality that lures the dreamer in, ever so realistically colored, seen from a realistic angle, with the same sense of presence. . . . I sat gazing down at the bedcover in a state of shock.

“Hey,” he said.

It was so sudden that I shivered. Glancing around, I saw that his eyes were wide open—that he was gazing at me. A thought slid into my brain.

So here we are again, at the edge of night.

“Why'd you sit up so fast? Were you having a bad dream?”

“No. It was a good dream,” I said. “A super dream. It was great. I was so happy I didn't want to wake up. God, it's awful having to come back to a place like this. It's a total fraud!”

“She must still be half asleep,” my boyfriend mumbled, as if to himself, and took my hand. Just then I felt tears welling up into my eyes. A hot teardrop plopped down onto the bedcover, and he was startled, and he pulled me back down into the covers, and even though it wasn't his fault, not really, he started being extremely earnest.

“I'm sorry . . . I didn't realize how tired you were. But it's okay, I guess we can . . . well, we won't be able to meet any more this week, but maybe next week we can get some really delicious food somewhere. Will that be all right? Hey, the fireworks are next week, aren't they? Why don't we go to the river and see them? Okay?”