——— We went all the way back to the apartment and Hyacinthe was going on and on about some revolt in the Côte d’Ivoire. She kept talking and I kept thinking about all that old, old wood, older than Jesus, older than Charlemagne or Sundiata. I want some of that. I wanted something like me.
      When we got back to our flat, I discover the entire esplanade has been torn apart by Thayer, Pratt the android with three faces, and the super, who’s named Sawyer.
      Like all guys, they see the alarm on my face and laugh. They’ve found the million dollars awready and will fix my esplanade back to its original state or any state I desire.
      Then I start to tell Thayer about the stones and the crystals I saw; that the woman in the African market expects my return. Thayer smiles that we don’t need to go that far. He summons the woman with two backsides, Susi, who leads down a hallway to a locked door that she has a key for. “I’m the only one can do this. You can’t get in this door without me. No. No. No. Without me, no entry.”
      I go into the room. I discover that all the objects including the furniture are made of carved Lalique with the same sort of curvature as the jewelry in the market. I remember that she had said to me that she always left a signature on any piece she and her husband executed. It was an antelope in the midst of a leap of some kind. She always kept everything asymmetrical. I looked a bit more closely at the crystalline couches, found her sign, and was content.

——— That’s a deliciously ornamental dream, Lili.

——— It’s about a house.

——— But what a house it is! It leads from this world to another; has a three-headed android who is sensitive to your needs; a two-backsided woman who is willing to share her secret, and a man who’s going to dig up your garden in Métro-Paris, find a million dollars, tell you he found it, and put your garden back however you want….

——— Yes, and then there’s the African woman with crystal and antelope signs….

——— And she didn’t even have to make anything for you.

——— Why not? What’s wrong with me?

——— Nothing, Liliane.

——— Then what are you talking about?

——— Even in your dreams the floors you walked, the couches you sat in, the bed you made. All these were…

——— What? Used, had awready, dirty, what?

——— I was going to say what I really believe. The rooms in your dream, just like everything else, but especially your bed and your tables and floors were precious.

——— Really.

——— It was a marvelously optimistic and beautiful dream, Liliane.

——— Yeah?

——— It’s time.

——— I know, whenever I start to feel good. “It’s time.”

——— You may be right about that.