“I know. I think you’ve just been daydreaming this whole time.”

Cooper’s dark eyes widened to the hope of such an explanation. “You do?”

“I do.”

“So not a trance?”

“Just daydreams,” said Peter. “Getting away when the rest of you is stuck here.”

“But ain’t they been aggressive?”

Peter recalled the nick on his neck where Cooper had accidentally struck him, but thought better of mentioning it now. “Who isn’t mad as hell when they’re pulled away from their dreams?”

Cooper smiled. “I guess.”

“And I’ve seen a canoe in my dreams too.”

“You did?”

“I did.”

“You was away, too?”

“Yes,” said Peter realising it only now, in the moment of saying. “I was away.”

“But how come?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it came to get us.”

But Peter didn’t know. All he knew was that, like Cooper’s, his dreams didn’t come at night either.

“And I could see it,” said Cooper. “I could see the mountains so clearly in my head it was like I was back there, Pete.”

“I know. Me too.”

“I tried to stay put, right here where my two feet was standin’. But it dint make no difference. No matter how hard I tried, my mind wouldn’t keep me away.”

“It’s OK. You’re back now.”

Cooper nodded, like being back was good, like being back meant not being a monster, and sunlight struck the orbs of his dark eyes, flooding them with gold.

Peter squeezed Cooper’s hand. “But why didn’t you tell me what Timberdark was? That it was the government’s plan against the Returnees?”

Peter pulled the dossier from inside his jacket and Cooper stood there staring at it for a little while.

“I dint want to say nothin’ because I know you was trying to make a fist of it here. You want this world so much, Pete. I knew if you thought there was any chance another government might make the same decisions about us again, that you’d never leave the lake. And I dint want that for you. I dint want to hold you back. But I swear, I never saw this till now. Rider just told me that the document was underneath Henry’s cabin so I understood everythin’. So I knew the risks his people had taken finding safety on the lake for the rest of us. But how did you get hold of it?”

“I’ll explain later.”

“But I did good keepin’ it from you, dint I?”

“Cooper, I’m never going to be happy unless you are. That’s not how it works.”

“But you are happy here. And I thought you was making promotion and everything.”

“No,” said Peter. “I’ve been struggling too. And now I’ve said it out loud I don’t know why I ever lied about it.”

“I think people do that all the time.”

“People?”