His reason for getting up turned out to be a trip to his brother’s house. Like always, the elder Mortensen’s home was chaotic, with small adorable blond girls running around, many of them shrieking when they saw their favorite uncle. He’d barely stepped inside when Andrea, his sister-in-law, came out to greet him. She wore a corduroy jacket with her jeans and T-shirt, her blond hair slicked back into a neat ponytail. She gave Seth a startled look.

“You didn’t bring your laptop?” Andrea was as cheerful as always but appeared tired.

He gestured over to where his twin nieces, McKenna and Morgan, were playing tug of war with a string of Christmas lights. It was odd because Christmas was over a month away and also because the lights were plugged in, which seemed like some sort of electrical risk to me. Apparently Seth felt the same way because he hastily intercepted them and removed the string of lights altogether, amid much protest.

“I don’t think I’ll get much work done with these guys,” he said dryly.

“Yeah,” she admitted. “I can see that.” She glanced at her watch. “Okay, gotta go. I don’t know how long this’ll take.”

“No problem,” he said. “Do what you need to.”

She scurried out the door. I wanted to ask where she was off to but had no means. Again, I was reminded how out of the loop I was from the Mortensen world now. Once I would have known every detail.

Kendall, a precocious nine-year-old, solemnly walked up to Seth. “Uncle Seth,” she said, “will you play Loan with me?”

Seth arched an eyebrow. “Loan? What’s that?”

“It’s where I’m the mortgage broker, and you come to get a loan for a house but don’t have the money for a down payment.” She paused. “We’ll have to make a pretend income fax for you.”

“Tax,” he corrected. “And how about we go to the bookstore instead?”

She frowned. “I want to play Loan.”

“They have real estate books there,” he said. “I don’t think we can play Loan without sufficient background.”

“Okay,” she conceded. “We can go.”

Brandy strolled into the living room just then with her four-year-old sister in her arms. Kayla looked like she’d woken up from a nap and sleepily had her head against Brandy’s shoulder. I loved all the girls, but something about Kayla always affected me more strongly.

“Go where?” asked Brandy, shifting Kayla’s weight. Although she held her sister tenderly, Brandy had a dark cloud around her.

“To Emerald City.”

Brandy sighed. “Don’t you spend enough time there?”

“Maddie got a few pairs of shoes for the dress and needs you to try them on.”

Brandy gave him a look that exquisitely expressed all of her feelings on that topic.

“Don’t start,” he warned, in as chastising a tone as I’d ever heard him use. Welcome to adolescence, Seth.

“Is Georgina working?” she asked.

Kendall looked up from where she’d been starting to color. In orange crayon, a blank piece of paper read “IRS.”

“Yeah, can we see Georgina?” Kendall piped in.

Seth looked pained. “I don’t know if she’s there or not.”

I didn’t know either. I didn’t know if this was a true or false dream. It felt true so far, but I didn’t trust the Oneroi. Being an observer, I had to think I wouldn’t be there. Certainly I wouldn’t if this were true. I wondered what would happen at the store when I suddenly stopped showing up.

“I can just stay here while you’re gone,” Brandy said. “Mom doesn’t mind if I’m alone.”

“Then you can’t try on the shoes. Which defeats the whole purpose.”

After a carefully worded “discussion,” in which Brandy suggested he just bring the shoes to her, she finally conceded. With the whole gang along, they had to take the Mortensen van, which Seth didn’t seem overly thrilled about. But there was no other way to transport five girls, one of whom needed a car seat.

The troop arrived at Emerald City. Seth left the four younger ones in the kids’ section, which was a wonderland of picture books, puzzles, and stuffed animals. Janice was working that area today and told him she’d keep an eye on the girls. Seth also put Kendall in charge of her sisters, with the bribe that he’d buy her some finance books.

That left him and Brandy to find Maddie, who was holed up in an office. Her face lit up when she saw them, and she practically flew from her seat to give him a quick kiss. Brandy scowled, and a troubled feeling burned within me. The love on Maddie’s face was so obvious, so strong…anyone could see it. She made no attempts to hide it, even at work. I hated their relationship, but how could I resent her feelings? How could I resent her loving the man who meant the world to me?

“How’s work?” he asked her, smiling fondly. Was that his way of showing love too? How had he looked around me? For some reason, I was certain he’d been different…hadn’t he? I couldn’t remember.

Maddie gestured to the desk she shared with Doug. “A little crazy. Yet strangely boring. I’m stuck on paperwork all day. Performance reviews.”

“Hey, I’m stuck on paperwork every day.”

She rolled her eyes. “Bad joke. And not the same at all.”

“Try putting some sex and violence into the reviews, and they might go faster.”

I was too disturbed by their banter to pay much attention to the fact that Maddie was doing my job. Brandy looked equally pained by the conversation. As Maddie and Seth spoke, I studied him further, trying to read his feelings. Yes, there was affection…yet, it reminded me a little of the warm indulgence he showed his nieces.

At last, Maddie produced a shopping bag full of shoes. Brandy’s dress was hanging in the office, and Maddie ordered Seth to leave while his niece changed.

Just before he was shooed out, Maddie remarked to Brandy, “I’m glad this color looks good on you. I decided to do everything purple because of how great it looked on Georgina. I found some awesome flowers that go with it all too.”

Oh, fucking fantastic. I had influenced the color scheme for their wedding.

Seth left, and I went with him. He wandered through the store, browsing through books—an activity he never tired of. Several employees said hello to him as they passed by.

Including me.

Seeing as the Oneroi had put me in dreams a couple times now, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Except, whenever I was a character in the theatre of these dreams, I’d always had awareness of it. I’d watched me and felt me. Now, I saw myself approach Seth exactly the same way I’d seen Maddie and Brandy approach him. I was still objective. No inner connection. Again, just like watching a movie. I didn’t entirely understand it, but nothing the Oneroi did should really shock me anymore.

“Hey,” I (she?) said, shelving a couple books. They were copies of The Scarlet Letter, and I’d set them in new releases.

“Hey,” said Seth, a weird mix of shyness and familiarity in his manner. “How’s it going?”

“Not bad,” I said. “Quiet day. Mostly just putting away books.”

“You’ve got Maddie doing reviews.”

“Yeah, well, I thought she could handle it. Besides, this dress is new. It’d be a shame to keep it hidden.”

My watching self had already noticed the dress because that was second nature to me. It was a great dress but not necessarily one to wear to work. It was a silk sheath that stopped high on the thigh, with straps tying around the neck and a scoop neckline that showed a considerable amount of cleavage. There was no bra anywhere. I looked like I should have been clubbing, not shelving. Seeing as this whole vision was no memory of mine, the dress only furthered the fact that this was one of the lies. I wasn’t afraid to tart it up, but even I had boundaries at work.

Seth seemed surprised at the dress but not unappreciative. “You should be hand-selling,” he said. “Go outside with a book, and I bet you could push it on anyone.”

“This dress might not work on everyone,” I pointed out.