THIS TIME THERE WAS no paralytic prelude; he began to ascend the instant he awoke in his sleep. Up through the attic like last time. Out through the roof on the left side, next to the chimney. And then he swept down as graceful as an angel and touched his feet lightly on the sidewalk. He wasn’t overwhelmed by the sheer strangeness of the experience this time. The first thing he noticed was that it must be much later than when he’d lain upon the couch. The houses were all dark, save for Mrs. Hultz’s. The moon was half of what it had been last he was on the night street. The sky was wondrously clear, with millions of stars.

He slipped weightlessly along the sidewalk, and this time when he got to the corner, he turned away from town and instead toward the park and the pine barrens. Why he was heading in that direction, he had no idea. When he passed the Blims’ house, Hecate was lying on the front lawn, watching the street. Owen was afraid he’d be seen. He noticed that the dog did lift its head and sniff the air, but for once it didn’t bark. A few houses along the way, he spotted a lit window and wondered what was going on behind it at that late hour. He changed course and swerved across the lawn to have a look.

The house was a ranch style with the windows close to the ground. Owen swore he wouldn’t invade other people’s homes in his invisible state. As far as spying on them, though, for some reason, that was another matter. He was infinitely curious about how people lived. In the well-lit room was a boy in red pajamas, somewhere between the ages of eight and ten. He was sitting at a small round table with two chairs. In between those two seats lay a chessboard. Owen watched as the boy made a move, ushering his queen from behind the defense of horses to attack. Then the boy got up, went to the seat opposite, sat and stared at the board, and made a move for that side. He was his own opponent. Familiar, thought the librarian. He’d never seen the boy before, and made a note in his memory to check if he was a patron of the library. He thought it might be worthwhile to get in some newer chess books.

He traveled on, toward the end of the road, and just before the entrance to the park, he passed a driveway with a running car parked in it. He peered into the vehicle and saw, by the light of an e-reader in her hand, a young woman. She was fast asleep behind the wheel. In the dark back seat, there was a fat-faced baby, smiling and kicking its legs. Owen surmised it was some failed attempt to get the child to sleep.