“Maybe it’ll work, Rosie,” Aaron said softly. “Maybe that Dr. Sharpe person will figure it out and we’ll get more time with him.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Maybe.”

We drove home with the windows down, the hot wind whipping through the car, chapping our faces, but feeling better for its realness than any breeze I could conjure in a dream.

JUNE 30TH, 2017

Tonight I dreamed of enormous trees. Their branches stretched over me, protecting me, their roots going deep into perfect, glistening, blue-green water. Salt and pine soaked my skin as I flew over the water, skimming the surface until I came to a clearing, every blade of grass perfect and green. I landed gently on a large tree root, flowers blossoming up from it, kissing me with their soft petals and sweet perfume.

I had been there before. This was a place that was familiar to me, deep in my bones familiar. Not because it was real, but because it belonged to someone who belonged to me.

“Rose!”

I turned around to see my mother looking at me in surprise, like she hadn’t expected to find me here. Which … fair.

“Hey, Mom,” I said, moving toward her. We hugged, something we’d only done in grief and fear in real life lately. But this was a hug of joy, of belonging. I can still feel it now, wrapping around me, an all-encompassing warmth.

“It’s been a while since you’ve been here,” she said, her smile brighter and freer than she’s able to give in the real world.

She came to sit next to me on the tree root, the grass humming in perfect harmony under her bare feet as she walked.

“I … I haven’t been in Dad’s head at all,” I told her, it being easier in here than anywhere else.

“Why not?” she asked, no judgment in her voice.

“It hasn’t felt like the right time,” I said. “I want to give him something nice, make sure he has good dreams, but I just … I wanted to fix it.

“I wanted to fix it so badly,” I whispered, embarrassed. “And I couldn’t.”

“I know, sweetheart.” My mom wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into her shoulder. I hugged her back, seeking answers in her arms.

“I’m not going to stop trying,” I promised. “If there’s a way to help him, I’m going to find it. And then I’m going to give him the best, most fantastical dreams I could ever make up.”

“You can’t wait, pumpkin,” she whispered. “You can’t wait for everything to be perfect to start.”

She pulled back from me, putting her hands on my shoulders so she could look right at me.

“The future is just some faraway place, Rose,” she said. “It’s like this place.”