“Two deserts, split by the Grand Canyon. Doesn’t sound so weird.”

Joey had been there just the other morning, before the sun had fuzzed through their blinds, the desert filling the empty spaces between her glances at the clock and at Grant. One moment, she’d been marveling at Grant’s capacity to sleep for seven hours under the microscope of the world without so much as a leg budging from its heavy diagonal drape—and then she’d flown back to the deserts again.

But last night there’d been nothing. No deserts. No Grant.

“So the thing is, there are also two of me in the dream. One of me is in one of the deserts, and the other me is in the other.”

“Is there anyone else in this world?”

Joey shook her head. “No one. And the first me has fallen, and she’s dangling on the edge of her desert, over this huge abyss. The other me is on the edge of her desert watching the first me about to basically die. And the other me has superhuman hands or something. She’s reaching out her long hand to help the first me. And the first me is trying so hard to reach the second me’s arm without plunging to her death. But she can’t, and she’s slipping. She’s slipping off her desert.”

Leo slowed the boat; the abrupt deceleration startled Joey. Leo maneuvered toward the boat’s slip. To safe land, but also to what existed upon it. “And then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“What happens, when the other you tries to save the first you?”

“Nothing happens.” She managed a weak smile. “It’s just me trying to save me. So far there’s never anything more.”

Leo killed the motor. They both waved to Lucas on the land.

“Sorry, I feel a little crazy here,” said Joey, shaking her head, wishing she could shake the deserts right out of her. “I haven’t told anyone about the two deserts, or the two me’s.”

“You’re not crazy, Jonesey. The two deserts, the two yous…”

“Yeah?” She needed Leo to explain it to her. This was, after all, why she’d told him. Because Leo was good at making okay the things that lived in her head.

“I know how it ends.”

“Oh?” She followed Leo off the yacht. He extended his arm to help her down. “There’s symbolism here somewhere,” she laughed, and gripped his hand.