When Faris reached Ireland, he made no attempt to adjust his sleeping and waking hours to fit in with Ireland’s. It would have thrown his sleeping pattern out of phase with Jodie Moore’s, and made it impossible for them to dream their way into conversations with each other. This meant that Faris had to sleep on the grass for 6 to 8 hours in the daytime, and be awake walking for most of the night.

He had studied an atlas before leaving Australia, and brought it with him on the boat. This had enabled him to narrow down the most likely part of Ireland to find a village separated by a forest with a countryside meadow.  However, there were still several candidate locations to try, and even if he found the right forest, a portal concealed within it would not be easy to locate either.

The first time he fell asleep, he explained this to Jodie.

“But remember that I’ve been sleeping in the daytime in order to dream while you’re dreaming,” said Jodie, “I think that’s why I never met you until the first time I slept in the daytime. I believe that my realm’s nights are concurrent with your Ireland’s nights. That’s why they were out of synch with your Australia’s nights. It’s probably because the portal to my realm is in Ireland. Now that you’re in Ireland too, we can both sleep nights and talk in our dreams, until you find your way here.”

“If I do find my way, and I’ll certainly try,” he said.

“You will. Haven’t you noticed how much clearer our views of each other are, since you got to your Ireland?” asked Jodie.

“Come to think of it, you looked a little like an older worn film, or one taken with a camera not fully in focus. I could see that you are beautiful, but the image of you is clearer now.”

“The same for me with the image of you. At first, I thought that you were slightly unclear because of your tiny size, but now I know what our dream images are improved by closer proximity.”

*     *       *        *

Colleen relived in her dreams the time when she had shrunken Private Investigator Dick Flanigin, and he had escaped her. Now she dreamt of the events where Dick had been found by a former client named Brenda Leesil, who was apparently a former client of Dick’s, when his tiny self had reached the public gardens in the Irish village.

Brenda had eaten Dick herself.

Then she heard Brother Zeke’s voice again, saying, “It was definitely a surprise to see Brenda be the one to suddenly gulp our private Dick.”

While Zeke laughed a little at himself, Tim’s voice said, “Yes, he got deeply into solving that mystery.”

Colleen awoke, intrigued. The events had been the same in both timelines, although Colleen only knew of the events of the reset one, naturally having no awareness of the fact that time had been reset at all. She was again fascinated by her dreams, and on a new level this time. She had not known what had happened to the real life shrunken Dick Flanigin after he had escaped her. She wondered if the dream she’d just had about this unknown Brenda Leesil had been true in real life, or was it an account as equally altered as her dreams of Stanley and Henry? If she’d still been on earth, she could have explored the village to see if a Brenda Leesil existed. It was inconsequential anyway. Colleen had certainly eaten Patrick and Henry, and to her, Dick Flanigin had been the one who’d gotten away. Once again, she didn’t know what to make of Zeke and Tim.