"Chihiro?"

"Chihiro?" the question repeated.

Chihiro zoomed back from the flight of fancy she had allowed herself to go on, and suddenly found herself in her schoolroom, with all eyes upon her as she sat nervously at her desk.

"Do you know the answer? You raised your hand."

Chihiro suddenly became aware of this, and looked up to see that her hand was, indeed, raised. She put it down to the noise of muffled giggles from the rest of the class as she started to blush bright red.

"Yes, Yoko-san," said Chihiro's friend Yui, coming quickly to the rescue from her seat behind Chihiro. "Emperor Meiji succeeded Emperor Kōmei, the last Emperor of the Edo Period."

"Very good, Yui," continued Yoko-san, as she continued the lecture. "And what, from your reading, was the major accomplishment of Emperor Meiji?"

Chihiro slumped down into her seat, and vowed to pay more attention. The class dragged on for what seemed like days.

Finally, the bell rang for class to be dismissed, and lunch to begin. Students from all over the low two-story school building scampered to collect books and bags, as the daily commotion got underway.

"Do you want to sit with us for lunch today?" invited Ayano, one of the other girls.

"Thank you," replied Chihiro graciously, "but I am meeting with Yui to study for our test in classical literature tomorrow." As Ayano turned around, her interest quickly darted to another schoolmate, a boy whose attention she'd been trying to get for weeks. Soon, three of her friends had joined her, giggling as they discussed trends, boys, and everything else.

Chihiro sighed as she stared blankly after Ayano's fussing crowd for a moment. Chihiro was a tomboy, klutzy and not graceful like some of the other girls. And while she definitely didn't see the point in chasing every boy who walked the hallways, she had to admit to herself that, well, sometimes...

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important!" joked Yui as she playfully gave Chihiro a jab.

"No, I was just thinking."

"Ah!" Yui chuckled. "You always seem to be thinking. For a girl who so emphatically denies being a romantic, you really seem to get lost in thought a lot!"

Chihiro gave her a quizzical stare that broke into a smile. Yui was the romantic, if anything. Chihiro was not. Yui probably would have loved to be in the other group, giggling about the latest fads, fashions, and crushes, but her thick-rimmed glasses and plain shoes gave her away as someone whose parents didn't have the means to always buy their way into the in-crowd. But for all of that, Yui had been a real trooper: the first person to really make a connection with Chihiro since she had started at her new school three months ago. Sure, the rest of the school was exceptionally nice, but few really bothered to make deep connections. As it turned out, Chihiro and Yui got along quite well, despite the constant accusations of romanticism. Chihiro put up with these, and in return, Yui put up with sometimes playing the part of Chihiro's tutor. And on weekends, they sometimes went on trips to the beach or other places together.

"Yui, I've been thinking."

"Mm-hmm?" Yui smiled, anxious to be let in on any secret thoughts.

"Do... could... " Chihiro trailed off, seemingly unable to form a sentence. She was unsure of whether to tell Yui about her recent fantastic experience. She had always figured that no one would believe her.

"Yes?" prodded Yui, eager for more information.

Chihiro stared off into space again, just saying, "Nevermind," as a peaceful smile crept over her features.

"Okay," Yui shrugged. She was disappointed, but not the sort of person to let such a thing ruin her day. When Chihiro was ready, she figured, she'd hear it eventually. "Wasn't that a lovely concert on saturday?"

Chihiro scowled deeply, almost as if the mere mention exposed her to the noise all over again. "I'm glad you considered it lovely," she said with considerable pain, "but next time, you could just spare me, dontcha think?"

"Tut-tut-tut!" scolded Yui. "Okay, you win. You're not a romantic at all." Yui laughed. Chihiro smiled, knowing that that concession would last maybe five minutes. "You have no appreciation for fine art!"

Chihiro looked at Yui as if she were crazy. "Fine art?" she almost yelled. She had had such a hard time persuading her parents to allow her to attend the concert in the first place, and now she wished that she hadn't been successful. For all their commonalities, music and the arts was an area about which Chihiro and Yui had considerable disagreement. "The only fine thing about that concert was leaving."

"Oh, come on," Yui prodded. "You were just disappointed that they didn't have the sterilized quality of the groups you hear on the radio. There's no imagination there, you know. A lot of the styles they listen to," she said, indicating her fellow students, "are directly copied from Western music. Saturday was a chance to see real artists practicing their craft!"

Chihiro was almost laughing, but held it back for just long enough. "I'll show you an artist practicing a craft!" she said as she gave Yui a playful shove.

Yui laughed and shoved back, and their shoving match carried on in some form or another until they reached the cafeteria.

Chihiro was so deep in thought over her geometry that she didn't even hear her mother enter the room. She jumped when she suddenly saw her mother's shadow descend over her book.

"I'm sorry to startle you, but I wanted to talk to you," said Mrs. Ogino. She settled gently onto the bed by Chihiro's desk, and said, "Your teacher called today."

"Oh," and with that Chihiro glumly folded her arms onto the back of her chair and rested her chin on them as she turned to face her mother. "What did she want?"

"She said that you've been trailing off during school again."

"Oh," repeated Chihiro. "Yeah, I suppose I did."

Mrs. Ogino leaned in closer and put a hand on Chihiro's face. "It's just that that has me worried. It's not like you to be daydreaming or constantly in another world. What's going on? You've been acting strange since we moved here." As if to emphasize the changing seasons, a brown leaf took just that opportunity to float in from the slightly open window by her desk. Chihiro turned around and stood just enough to pull the window closed. The trees outside were nearly out of leaves, and winter would be on the town soon. "Chihiro? Don't avoid the question. I've asked just about everything I know to ask. I had figured that you'd tell me if there was a boy you liked, but I'm going to have to ask now. Who is it?" At this she started to smirk. "Come on, you can tell me."

Chihiro smiled distantly, but shook her head. "There's nobody that I like."

Her mother was visibly frustrated by this. "Not even a tiny crush? I see the boys that walk by as you go into the school." Her tone perked and she teased, "Some of them are really handsome!"

Chihiro laughed at this just a little. "No," and she became serious again. "That's not it," she reassured her mother.

Although she was satisfied that she had received the truth about boys, Mrs. Ogino still wanted to press on and find the problem. "So there is something, then?"

"It's nothing. Probably just a phase, right?" Chihiro chuckled nervously, hoping this might get her out of a lengthy explanation. It didn't work.

"This phase," said her mother sternly, "is affecting your schooling."

"But, Mom," pleaded Chihiro, "I'm still getting good marks!"

"Yes," conceded her mother, "your marks are good..." but after a moment, the sternness returned: "but not as good as they could be!" Chihiro was visibly put off by this last statement, and turned away. Her mother reached out a tender hand to her shoulder, and asked one final time, care evident in her tone. "Can't you tell me what's going on?"

Chihiro paused a long moment.

She contemplated, and finally decided to speak.

"Remember the day we moved here?"

"Yes? What about it?"

"Remember how the movers beat us to our house? By a full week?" The last two words had a nearly sarcastic emphasis.

"So? You know that we visited your aunt during that time, and we also stopped in Tokyo for a few days. Don't you remember seeing Shibuya Ward at night? You were so amazed by the bright lights, and how it looked like daylight even after dark!" Mrs. Ogino smiled at the memory, but then moved on. "Your father never could quite figure out what happened with our schedule, but," she sighed, "the movers did what we paid them to do." She paused and added, "I don't see what that has to do with your studies, though."

Chihiro made the decision to attempt, for only the second time, to tell her mother the story of her experiences in the bathhouse. The first time, she had been cut off before she was able to say much of anything, and hadn't tried again. She offered, "Haven't you ever wondered how you guys managed to misplace six days?"

"I wondered a bit at first," admitted Mrs. Ogino, "but then I had just figured that we were having so much fun during our moving week...that..." She trailed off, obviously unable to reconcile the facts she knew with the reality she couldn't accept.

"Are you ready for a long story?"

"Helloooo! Does anybody live here?" Mr. Ogino announced his arrival back at the house. He seemed to be in a surprisingly good humor.

"Just a second, honey! I'm having a talk with Chihiro!" Rolling back over, she said, "Now, what were you saying?"

Chihiro continued. In the better part of an hour that she had been talking, they had both taken up a more comfortable position on Chihiro's bed. As her mother sprawled out at the end of the bed, Chihiro sat near her pillow with her knees supporting her folded arms. "I was telling you about the train ride to Swamp Bottom." And then she added with mild frustration, "The sixth stop."

"Ohhh, you!" chuckled Mrs. Ogino playfully, as she wriggled up the bed to plant a kiss on her daughter's cheek. "I was hoping you'd get to the part where you rescued me and your father from being, what was it, frogs?"

"Pigs, Mom," Chihiro flatly intoned.

"Pigs!" her mother laughed. "Of course!" She embraced Chihiro in a motherly hug. She took her daughter's hand and beamed. "I know what you should do. You should be an author! Where did you ever get such an imagination?" Sobering a bit, she added, "Let's go see your father."

"Okay, you go ahead. I'll be down in a minute."

Chihiro was down a few minutes later, but not before using a tissue on her eyes.

The woods were quiet, and so was the path. The last time Chihiro had been on this path, a silver Audi had been causing a racket that would have made a mountain tremble. She passed the torii, and headed down a path that she had positively refused to take on any other day.

But today was different. Something in her mother's words made her need this path, made her long for it, and refused to let go of her until she had traversed it.

The path grew darker as she passed ever deeper into the woods, and she noticed an embankment that had flown by so quickly that she'd barely observed it. Chihiro was propelled, not by her own whim or desire, but by fate itself. She could no more turn back her path than she could turn back a clock. Past a familiar statue in the woods, over a small creek, and finally the woods broke to reveal a small double-faced statue, covered with moss, in front of a red plaster building.

The building looked old enough, but her father had identified it as new construction that had only recently been abandoned. Chihiro nearly sprinted through the tunnel, finding an open room with benches and columns spread throughout.

Chihiro leaned on one of the columns, weary from her near-sprinting, and heard the faintest whistle of a train.

Chihiro walked through the room and out the other side, just to see a lush green meadow, with a dry stone river running through it. She managed the stones as quickly as she could, then continued running through the meadow, following the sound of the train.

As she ran through the meadow, she spied the train tracks and ran toward them, as the whistling became louder and more regular. Suddenly, she became aware that she was looking for a hill that she had not found, and a town that did not appear. She looked everywhere around her, but all she could see was a vast clearing, flat on all sides, encircled by trees and bisected by a train track. A red light on the fast-approaching train illuminated its number, "630," as the whistling became louder and more hoarse.

Chihiro suddenly realized that she was standing on the track, and dove out of the way as the train's noise became so loud that she could hardly stand it.

She fell to the ground with a thud, and her sheets wrapped around her as she dimly made out the time from her alarm clock: 6:30.

After turning it off, she took a moment to catch her breath.

Even a dream can seem terrifyingly real.