Lily stood in her office, dressed in a stylish gray wrap-around skirt and conservative pink button-down shirt. She had her hair swept up in a twist at the back of her head and big delicate silver hoop earrings on. She looked down at the street below. New shops, all looking quaint and old-fashioned, in a way that was too sparkling and fresh and clean. Cars drove by busily. But she was distracted, staring at her finger.

Her right index finger. The tip of it. She had a sliver. Just like in her dream. She was pondering what this meant. But what could it possibly mean? Maybe she had gotten the sliver yesterday and just dreamed about it afterwards. But she didn’t remember getting it. Had she gotten it this morning somehow? While getting ready for work? She didn’t remember that. And gotten it where? Everything in her world was polished and smooth. Nothing rough, nothing to splinter.

Just then one of her employees knocked at her open door. She turned.

“Lily, you wanted to look at my drawings for the Hunter account?” a young dark-haired woman said, also stylishly dressed. It was a strange fact that if a designer could put together a great outfit, it made clients have more confidence in his or her ability to put together a great room design. It was like an ever changing uniform they had to wear, a show to put on.

“I’ll be right there,” Lily smiled at the woman. The young woman nodded and left. Lily looked down at her fingertip again. What did it mean?

* * *

Lily stepped through her front door at about 8:45 p.m., exhausted. What else was new? The dreams were making her go to bed earlier, but it didn’t mean she felt more rested. She supposed working constantly was not helping.

She set her coat and purse on the table by the door, and walked up the stairs to the living room. She started taking the pins out of her hair. Took out her earrings, carried them to the bedroom and put them in the clay bowl on her dresser. She’d sort them out later. What was going on with her dreams? Every night in her new house she had had them. Dreams of that place. Should it worry her? Was it a sign of stress? She was too tired to care right now. She slipped out of her black high-heeled sandals and set her sore feet on the ground. Why did she wear those things? They looked great, that’s why. But, wow, did they hurt her feet. Not that she wore them daily, but it felt necessary to look her absolute best all the time.

She climbed out of her clothes and laid them neatly on the bench at the end of her bed. Peeled off her sheer black stockings and laid them down too. She took off her bra, and grabbed a big T-Shirt from a drawer and threw it on. She climbed right into bed then, didn’t bother with a late dinner or anything. She fell immediately to sleep.

She wasn’t surprised to open her eyes and find herself in the other world again. She was standing. It was daytime. She was facing the road and the woods. She could hear the festival going on behind her. She glanced down to see the necklace Caleb had won for her. Her dream was picking up right where she’d left off, she thought. Sort of.

She could see someone walking up the road, towards her. As he got closer she could see it was Caleb. She smiled when she realized this. He smiled back. He approached her and stood looking down at her and took her hands in his.

“You’re back,” he said.

“Yes,” she said happily. Then asked, “Did I leave?”

He nodded. “We both did. But here we are again.”

“Oh,” she said. “But the festival is still going on.”

“The festival is there every day,” he said still looking into her eyes.

“Oh,” she said, wanting to glance back at the festival to see, but not really wanting to look away from him. “You’ve been here longer than me?” she asked.

“I’ve been here a while,” he said. He turned, back toward the road and started walking, holding one of her hands. She began walking too, away from the village with him.

“Do you know what this place is called?” she asked.

He nodded. “Alinora.”

“Oh,” she said, “That’s pretty.”

He smiled. “So are you,” he said.

She looked away and blushed. “You have a nice voice,” she muttered. She glanced back at him.

Now he turned away blushing. She laughed. She let go of his hand and skipped ahead of him for a moment, and turned and waited for him to catch up. When he did he tried to take her hand again, but she skipped away again laughing.

He laughed too, and started to chase her.

She shrieked happily as he almost caught her and she got away. She kept running and laughing, breathing in the invigorating air of this strange world, feeling more alive with each step.

She stopped near a tree and he caught up with her and held her shoulders against the tree gently and looked down at her. She smiled, out of breath. He smiled too.

“Is it always happy here?” she asked.

He nodded. “Yes,” he said.

She noticed something on his face and reached up to touch it. It was a scar, thin, that ran from near the corner of his right eye, down his cheek almost to the corner of his mouth.

“Are you sure?” she said, touching his scar.

He grabbed her hand and held it in both of his.

“Oh, I didn’t get that here,” he said, then kissed her hand seductively.

She easily slipped her hand out of his and ran down the path again, laughing a little bit. They had gotten to the place where the road became a path and then a narrow trail. She kept running down it, ’til she was weaving through the trees. She couldn’t hear him behind her anymore and stopped.

She couldn’t see him, but she heard a rustling through the trees, he had left the path and was running through the trees to the left of the path.

“Hey!” she laughed breathlessly, and backtracked to where she’d heard the sound. She started running through the trees after him. The trees were close together and she was moving through them so quickly and recklessly that her sleeve caught on a branch. It tore her sleeve and scratched her left shoulder. But she barely cared. She quickly detached her sleeve from the branch and kept running. She could barely see him, but he ran slowly enough for her to catch up. She could hear the rush of water getting louder as she got closer to him.

He had stopped in a clearing, on the banks of the river, where a waterfall crashed from the rocks above them into the river. He smiled at her, out of breath himself, his tanned muscles glowing with sweat.

“You tricked me,” she said, out of breath.

“Of course,” he smiled. She approached him and took his hands. He let her hands go to cup her face. She smiled. He almost leaned down to kiss her, but she scampered away again, to the edge of the river.

She smiled back at him as she crouched down. Then she cupped her hand to scoop some cold water from the river to drink. He smiled at her and crouched down beside her to do the same.

After he’d had his fill of water, he used both hands to drench his head and hair in water to cool off. Then he glanced over at her with a mischievous grin and shook his head so water flew off of his head and sprayed her. She squealed and splashed him with water from the river. He splashed a handful of water at her too and she squealed again and ran away from the river bank.

He laughed and chased her over to the shade of a big tree, where she was resting against the trunk. He ran his fingers down her arms and then circled his arms around her waist. He looked intently into her eyes and smiled. He slowly leaned down to kiss her and she didn’t turn away this time.

His lips were warm and salty. And gentle. She threw her arms around his back. He pressed his body closer to her. She thought she felt his heart pounding against her chest. Or was that her own? His hand reached up to the front of her bodice and started to undo the laces. She let her fingers travel under his shirt and up the bare skin of his muscular back. He stopped kissing her for a moment and pulled his shirt off over his head. Then his mouth hungrily found her mouth again and his fingers finally unwound the last of her bodice laces. He threw the lace to the ground and lifted the bodice off her shoulders, leaving a sheer white blouse underneath. His rough hands reached up under her blouse to caress her bare skin, moving slowly upward—and then she woke up.

She lay in her bed with her eyes wide open listening to the blaring beep of her alarm clock. She smacked the snooze button angrily.

“Stupid alarm clock,” she muttered.

* * *