“What did you dream about, while you couldn’t see me?” he asked.

“The other side of the portal that you were dreaming about, unless I miss my guess,” said Jodie, “It was in a forest, between a village with a high school and a country hillside with a meadow, which was ironically inhabited by folk who are so tiny to you, just as you are to me.”

“There are legends of little folk in Ireland. They’re called Leprechauns. I guess, to you, I’m a Leprechaun in size difference at least.”

“Maybe they have come into your world from a realm of even smaller people.”

“I think it’s more likely that they always lived in Ireland, but in secrecy, if they even exist at all.”

“Maybe you don’t really exist either. Perhaps every conversation we’ve had, even the fact of you telling me about yourself dreaming, is all just part of a dream in my mind.”

“Except that the identification of known places in each other’s realms kind of proves it’s all real. I’m not just dreaming you, and you’re not just dreaming me. We exist. It’s just that so far, we’ve only been able to see and communicate with each other, when we’re dreaming.”

“I’ve never seen the portal you mentioned, when I’ve been at that mountain lookout,” said Jodie.

“There were large flowers in front of it. I noticed one in particular, the nearest one, which showed me that it was in a giant realm,” said Faris.

Then he awoke. He wondered if Jodie had stayed asleep. It was morning.

*     *       *        *

Colleen dreamt of the time she had gone on a sabbatical from teaching while still on earth, and hired Patrick to work as her test subject for a shrinking device which she had actually already invented and perfected, let him romance her until she surprised him by using it.

Then she heard Brother Zeke’s mysterious voice from thin air again, as he said, “The build-up is killing me! I love it though. I’m looking forward to seeing Colleen give Patrick that one-way trip to her stomach!”

Then Tim’s voice responded with, “Several instalments to go, and wait until you see what happens after that.”

Patrick had temporarily escaped into her yard, until she went out in hot pursuit and eventually caught and ate him. He had led her a merry chase, climbing onto outdoor objects and keeping both her mind and body active while she made every effort to run him down. In the end, he’d had to accept that her machine had done its work on him permanently, and that no change of mind on his part, about being eaten later in return for romance earlier, could possibly bring about a reciprocating change of mind on her part. He had gone down her throat, and she had had no regrets.

Colleen awoke again. This time, the dream had been an exact replication of the events that she recalled from real life back in her days on earth. This was because those events had been the same and unaltered on both the original and the reset timelines. The leprechauns had not known about Patrick’s problems and had therefore made no effort to alter them after they’d used the Ring of Reversal to reset time.

So the only peculiar aspect of this dream was the vocal exchange between the ephemeral Brother Zeke and Tim.