Sarah stepped into her house in the afternoon with a picnic basket. “Lily!” she said with smiling sympathy.

“Sarah,” Lily said.

Sarah set down the basket and gave Lily a big hug. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Lily said. “Overworked, but fine.”

“I didn’t know you had jeans,” Sarah said, surveying Lily’s outfit.

Lily snickered.

“I kid!” Sarah said following Lily upstairs to the living room.

It was true, though. It had been quite a while since Lily had had to wear casual clothes. That was probably bad. Even on moving day she’d been dressed in nice casual clothing, in case she had to go to the office. She always did that on weekends. Until now. And this was mid-week!

“So, indoor picnic? Or out?” Sarah said, setting her basket on the kitchen counter.

“Let’s break my dining room in,” Lily said. “I don’t know why I even have one, I never have people over.”

“Hush,” Sarah said, “Don’t worry about that stuff now.”

They walked into the large dining room. It had heavy velvety dark brown curtains.

“Oooo,” Sarah said like a little girl, amazed.

“Watch this,” Lily said. She went to the largest wall, and pulled the cord to open the dark heavy curtains to reveal a thin white curtain underneath, which let in a burst of light, but you still couldn’t see through it. Then she went to the two other outer walls and pulled back their velvety curtains too, so the room was flooded with natural light. It made the large oak wood table look much friendlier.

“I love it!” Sarah declared, clapping her hands together.

Lily laughed. “Thank you.”

They sat down and Sarah handed her a sandwich and a thermos. “Egg salad,” Sarah said, “and warm spiced cider.”

“Ooo,” Lily said, unwrapping hers.

They ate in silence for a while, then finally Sarah said, “So, tell me what’s going on.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked. “Stress, overwork, you know.”

“Pfft,” Sarah said. “I mean, yes, I agree, but why now? What was the catalyst?”

Lily thought for a moment, not knowing if she should share her bizarre dreams with Sarah. “The catalyst,” she said finally, “is that the house didn’t make me happy.”

Sarah nodded. “That makes sense. You need to reprioritize.”

“Hmm,” Lily said. “You could say that.” Though, frankly, she thought to herself, her main priority being a dream world was seeming a bit wrong. Backwards. Though it was hard to convince herself a good place was bad.

They finished their meal, chatted about things, then Sarah left. Soon Lily was alone in the house again, and night was approaching. The next day she had an appointment with her therapist. Would she tell her about whatever crazy dream she’d have tonight? Should she? Probably. What if this was evidence of a disease? What if she needed medication? She had to tell someone eventually. Alinora was starting to control her life.

That night she did dream of Alinora again. She met Caleb in the forest. They walked and talked and gathered interesting leaves and rocks. Caleb told her about the village and other places in the woods he’d been to. He’d been coming there for years. The sun actually set in the dream world, which she’d never witnessed there. Blue and pink and orange all swirled together in the sky. Were sunsets this pretty in real life? It had been a while since she’d stopped to watch one.

When she was in the dream world she could remember reality, but she didn’t much care. It was all a vague memory to her. She only cared once she woke again. She and Caleb took their rocks and leaves back to the cabin and laid them in the center of the dining table in a pretty arrangement. They danced with no music through the living room. And once again made love in the big fluffy bed. She was so a part of that world now. Nothing else mattered. She woke into reality after falling asleep in Caleb’s arms in Alinora. She refused to open her eyes, though. She didn’t know what time of day it was, or if she was late for her appointment. She didn’t care.

Later at Dr. Carpenter’s office she sat staring silently into space in the comfy chair across from Ellie. She had just finished telling her all about Alinora.

“That’s a very creative story,” Ellie said kindly. “Your mind is good at weaving vivid dreams.”

Lily felt silently annoyed. Offended Ellie would think it wasn’t real. But she herself thought it wasn’t real. Right?

“But why is it so vivid?” Lily asked. “Is there something wrong with me? Do I need an MRI?”

Ellie chuckled gently. “No,” she said. “Not yet, anyway. I think it’s just a sign of stress. Do you have other dreams besides the Alinora dream?”

Lily pondered this. “Yes,” she said. “But they are very vague and fleeting. I dream of work, and traffic, and… I forget.”

“Hmm,“ Ellie said. “Your work is invading your sleep. Maybe that’s why you created a refuge there. A place with no work, no traffic, no schedules to keep.”

“Maybe,” Lily said, still skeptical.

A tiny bell alarm went off on Ellie’s desk across the room.

“Looks like our time is up,” Ellie smiled at her.

Lily felt quietly disgruntled by this news. She didn’t really feel like they had gotten anywhere. Mostly she wanted to hear that ‘it’s all real, of course, nothing to worry about, enjoy.’ Not likely.

“Okay,” Lily said standing up.

“Next Tuesday then?” Ellie asked.

“Next Tuesday,” Lily answered.

“Try not to worry too much,” Ellie said. “And it may be a good idea to try to remember and write down the dreams that aren’t about Alinora. Maybe if we can get them to be more vivid we can get to the root of the problem. Okay?”

Great, Lily thought. Homework. “I’ll try,” Lily said. “Bye.”

“Bye.”

But she didn’t even try. She paid more attention to her other dreams, but they paled in comparison to Alinora. They were filled with turmoil and worries. Alinora was peace and love.

She’d visit with Caleb, go to the village, walk to the waterfalls, skip through the meadows. Make love in the garden or in the house, under the sun, under the moon. It was all beautiful. Alinora simply became more real. She was beginning to think it was a bad idea to give up her job for a while. She had very little to ground her in reality. Just the therapy. And visits from Sarah.

Months went by this way. She’d talk about her stress with Ellie. She avoided the subject of Alinora with Sarah. Ellie did eventually send her to get an MRI. Nothing abnormal came up.

She was getting hungrier and eating more. She realized when she’d been busy she had hardly had time to eat. She’d make herself eat breakfast, and she frequently entertained clients at lunch or dinner. But now she had time and was learning to cook. She had also started eating in the dream world. She hadn’t at first. But there were fruit trees in the garden and she couldn’t resist their perfect sweet fruit. It seemed so pure compared to real fruit. She’d noticed she felt healthier when she ate it too. Renewed. She had more energy. If that was a psychological trick, it was a pretty good one.

All the extra eating had made her pants start to get tight, though. She should probably find another hobby soon, before she needed a new wardrobe.

She barely missed work. She really had been burned out on it, she realized. Designing rooms had lost its appeal for her. Clara kept her up-to-date on things. Lily called once a week or so. Things were going fine at the business. At home, well, things were pretty much the same. Zero progress. Her vivid dream world was still vivid. And still the place she preferred to be.

One night while dreaming of Alinora, she and Caleb were lying in bed, naked, and he put his hand on her stomach. “You’re getting round,” he said with his low comforting voice. He smiled.

“I am,” she said, looking down and putting her hand over his hand. She was surprised, but not overly so. Nothing was a source of stress here. “We’re having a baby,” she said as she realized it was true.

He smiled at her and leaned down and kissed her passionately. They had just made love, but this was a cause for celebration. He gently brought her to ecstasy again, aware that he should be careful with her now. Tears spilled out of her eyes as she arched her back and let pleasure swell through her body, felt herself become one with him. Now they shared a new kind of dream. The dream of a new life growing inside her. That they had made.

Lily woke in reality clutching her blankets in her arms tightly, tears on her face. She was happy and sad all at once. In her dream world she now had everything she’d ever wanted in reality. She instinctively moved her hand to her lower abdomen to feel it. It felt… hard.

She sat up quickly in bed. She lifted her shirt and felt her abdomen again. It was, was it round? It was hard. Was it usually like that? How could she not have noticed? When was the last time she’d had her period? She gasped when she realized she couldn’t remember.

She leaped out of bed and ran across the room to the wall calender. She had about three of them throughout the house. On the bedroom one, she put little stars on the days she had her period. There were none marked for this month. She pulled the calendar off the wall and looked back at the months. The last time she’d had a period was about two weeks before she’d first dreamed of Alinora.

“Oh, my God,” she said to herself frantically, “this is not happening.” She hurried into some jeans and a T-shirt and glanced in the mirror to straighten her hair out a bit. Then she slipped on some shoes and grabbed her coat and purse on her way out the front door.

She was going to buy a pregnancy test. Then she’d see once and for all if Alinora was real.

* * *