There it was—that strange contradiction I’d noticed in Dr. Bright. She was pro-medication when it helped, clearly very scientifically-minded, always wanted me to check with medical doctors about anything and everything, but didn’t seem to really like the AM. That was when the thought occurred to me: maybe the AM weren’t the only other people who could help.

“Are there other Atypical doctors?” I probed, as casually as I could manage. “You know, outside of the AM? My family has always gone there for Atypical-related stuff and to a normal doctor for everything else. Do you know of anyone who does both?”

“Not currently,” she said, bursting the tiny bubble inside of me that had started to grow. “But if you’re not happy with your AM physician, I’m sure you could ask Agent Green—”

“No, no, it’s not that,” I said, waving my hand in a dismissal. “My doctor is fine. It’s—”

And there it was. My perfect moment to tell her about my dad. About how I wanted him to see a different doctor, one who understood about Alzheimer’s and being Atypical and could find a solution to the fact that maybe one was affecting the other and he had different options than someone who wasn’t Atypical.

But instead, I went a different direction entirely.

“You used to work there, right?”

“Yes.” The perfect, neutral face was back. Somehow even more neutral than before.

“Did you ever get the feeling that … something weird was going on?” I asked, trying to match her neutrality.

“What do you mean?” Her eyes narrowed.

“Something shady.” I shrugged a single shoulder like this was the most casual conversation in the world.

“Rose,” she said, suddenly sounding very serious as she leaned forward on her elbows. “Did something happen while you were there?”

“No, no, nothing happened,” I rushed to explain, wondering what can of worms I had just opened. “Not to me, anyway. I was dreamdiving and I found myself in another patient’s dreams and it was, I don’t know, it wasn’t good. At first I thought it was just a nightmare but then when I was leaving, he was checking out at the same time. I recognized him from his dream. And I introduced myself, because if there’s any place where you can go up to someone and say, ‘Hey, I was in your dream last night, can I ask you some questions about it,’ it’s at the AM.”

“What did he say?” she asked urgently.