Hey, guys! It's been a while, again, but I'm still going at it! I'm also working on a novel of my own, but I'm trying to do both at the same time, so hopefully I'm quickening my pace! Please enjoy this chapter.

Chapter Ten
Salomon

January 24
11:10 pm

Without the speech, without the caution, without image after image playing havoc in their heads, the night was still and silent. William and Sissi, still and silent themselves, fit perfectly within it – they were seated against the wall, practically blending into it, with no more than a comfortable distance between them.

"That's amazing," William said, suddenly but softly.

"Hm?" Sissi started and looked over. "What is?"

"Well, everything." William looked up, and pressed his hands against the wall. "We're not actually supposed to ask you guys about France, but I can't say I'm sorry I did."

Sissi took a moment to respond. "I don't think I've thought about it much myself. Until now, anyway." Her face fell as she spoke. "Not that thinking is actually going to change everything that's… well, gone wrong."

"Now, see, that's where we disagree," William said with a hint of a grin. "Knowing what you know, and knowing what I know, I think we've got some pretty…versatile thoughts. If you know what I mean."

"No," Sissi said. "No, I don't really know what you mean."

"Because you don't know what I know," William said. "Maybe when you do, you'll change your tune. This past week has been…reassuring, as far as I'm concerned, and maybe soon you'll feel the same way."

"Go on, then," Sissi said, with a grin to match his. "Tell me what you know. Or whatever you think is important."

"Alright then." William shifted himself to face Sissi. "I won't keep you on the edge of your seat any more…"

"Well, kind of like you, my life wasn't really all that interesting up until this fall. I lived in Cardiff – that's in Wales, that strange place across the sea – with my mum and dad, and when I was eleven they sent me to this place, my dad's old school. And I went here for three years, doing stuff, minding my own business, until October 8th of last year, the same day your bear attacked."

Sissi's eyebrows flew into her hair. "What happened?"

"Well, as far as I can remember, nothing. But that's the thing. I remember waking up, going to breakfast, lounging in my room a bit…and then the next thing I remember is waking up the next day, October 9th. Everything in between is a blur. I couldn't remember the previous day at all. I was disoriented for a while, but I just chalked it up to me being tired and went to breakfast.

"But when I got there, everyone had their eyes glued to the news. I saw your school, and the teddy bear you were talking about. I distinctly remember seeing your father being interviewed, too. When I asked my classmates what was going on, they were amazed that I didn't know. It was all anyone talked about all day – what the bear might be, who sent it, whether it was aliens or terrorists or anything anyone could come up with. Of course, when there wasn't anything new on it for three or four more days, it sort of died down and we went on with our lives."

"Lucky you."

"Well, it's not like that lasted very long," William went on. "A week later, everything started happening in France, and we were glued to the screens again, watching, well, everything you just told me. Once they started evacuating everyone, the nuns got a message from the main organization saying that the school was to be used as a shelter if need be. Students were given two options: they could return to their families and transfer schools, or stay on and care for the refugees for class credit. Of course, half the school left overnight, but I stayed. Clearly."

William had a pained expression. "Well…I'll be honest. I wanted to leave. I really wanted to leave. But when I called my parents…well, it turned out that they had been in Lyon for a week, visiting my aunt. They were being evacuated to Nice. There was no way for them to get home, or for me to get to them. So I stayed here. It was the easiest thing to do."

Sissi's eyes were wide as saucers. "You…never told me that."

"Didn't need to." William shrugged. "They're in Corsica now. Last time they called, they were alright. Of course, that was three weeks ago…but enough about that. We weren't needed for two weeks, so we just kept having classes for lack of anything better to do. But around that time, I started having some really strange dreams. Not strangely strange, even, but strangely…normal."

"Dreams aren't that important," Sissi said. She still looked unnerved, but William did notice that she was looking up at him with somewhat more friendliness in her eyes.

"Just you wait," he said. "I dreamed about school. And not even showing up to an exam late or forgetting to put my pants on or anything. Just…going to school. Night after night. About the only strange thing about these dreams was that there were people there that had already gone home. Of course, I didn't really bother to remember them, or really pay them any attention, until we were called to be a shelter and you all showed up. Then…well…the dreams started changing.

"There was someone that kept showing up in them. I can't remember their face or anything about them, but they were there again and again. Then, one night, a week after I saw you by the tree, I dreamed I was walking around the school, putting up pieces of paper I couldn't read on every surface, even the principal's windshield. The only other thing I remember is that later in the dream, that person was there, screaming at me.

"After that the school dreams ended, pretty realistically actually. The next night I dreamed about travelling back to Cardiff, and the night after that about my parents yelling at me, and the night after that about sitting in my room back home. It wasn't until then that I realized that not only were my dreams making a sort of collective story, but it was a story that made sense in a way dreams don't normally. I started keeping a notebook, and wrote and drew about my dreams in there. It was casual for a while – sometimes I'd skimp on details or skip a night or two – but I knew I had to take it seriously when I dreamed about Christmas at home on Christmas night here."

William furrowed his brow. "I shouldn't go on until I ask if you believe me."

Sissi pursed her lips at him. "Well, to be honest," she said, "No. But you're not done."

"No I'm not, because Christmas was just the tip of the iceberg – and here's the part I think might interest you. Right around the beginning of January, my dreams started changing again, in a big way. One night I dreamed I was on a plane and not much else, and the next night, I dreamed I was at school…but it wasn't Avenshire, or any school I'd ever seen. My dreams are hazy, I don't remember much, but I can remember this school's name because I'd heard it before, on the news. Kadic Academy, in Bolougne-Billancourt."

William paused to gauge Sissi's reaction. She had an odd look on her face, as if she had just swallowed a lemon, but did not appear to be about to pass judgment, so he went on before she could think to begin. "For a while, I didn't make the connection. I was curious, but I couldn't make heads or tails of where I was or why I'd changed schools. But then, well, then things started getting interesting." He smiled a small smile. "I met a girl."

Sissi's lemon face grew tighter. "A…girl?" she blurted. "Why is that important? Why is any of this important?"

"Oh, this wasn't any ordinary dream girl. You know why?" William looked over at the Ishiyama camp. "Because it was her."

"H-her?" Sissi turned her head slowly, like clockwork, to Yumi's mattress. She was asleep at the moment, but that didn't stop Sissi from recoiling slightly, away from her and away from William. "You can't be…you can't really…"

"But this wasn't your Yumi Ishiyama," William went on, ignoring Sissi's distress. "This one walked, and talked, and didn't show any signs of being attacked by a giant teddy bear. After I saw her for the first time, I had a lot of dreams about her. It seems that, in this dream, we're supposed to be friends. But why should you believe that? I could easily be lying about all this. But I think the dealmaker is what I know about her friends. I never spoke to them much, but they'd show up from time to time, always on the edges, calling her away…"

William pulled out his notebook page again, the same one Sissi had found weeks ago, and held it in front of her widened eyes. "Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich… Stern, and…" He tapped his finger on the unfamiliar girl. "Her. I can never remember her name, or any of their faces. But if I've never seen them before, how do I know what they look like at all?"

Sissi looked rapidly around the notebook page, then reached for it with trembling hands. "T-t-this is ridiculous," she stammered. "T-this is c-completely insane…"

"You're telling me," William said, surrendering the paper to her. "They're the most vivid, but all those other people you mentioned, Jim, your father, Milly and Tamiya and Herb and Nicolas, I saw them all. And not just them, either…"

He pointed at the drawing labeled Sissi Delmas, the principal's daughter. "I gotta say, I was pretty shocked when you showed up," he said. "You ran into me, then called me a dork. That wasn't very nice of you. Anyway, Yumi was the one who told me your name, and said you were a…well, I'll just say I got the impression that you guys didn't really get along. I didn't think anything of it in the dream, but when I woke up, I knew where I'd seen you. And just my luck that I ran into you that day, and that you answered to your name!"

William shifted himself to fully face Sissi. "That's my tale. Any questions?"

He grinned at Sissi's harrowed face. She was looking from him to the paper and back again, and looked both shocked and confused. She didn't speak for some time, but when she did it was short and terse. "What are you?" she said.

"That's what I've been hoping you could help me with." William shifted closer to Sissi; instinctively, she backed away. "It's strange that my dreams have been hijacked by an ongoing story, even stranger that I'm dreaming about real people that I've never met and real places I've never seen participating in events that never happened, stranger still that you were all closely tied to an all-encompassing cataclysmic event..." William made a thoughtful face. "And, strangest of all in fact, that despite a thousand mile distance, you, your father, Yumi, and Milly all ended up in my lap. Do you…know anything that could enlighten me?"

Sissi opened her mouth immediately, but let it hang silent for a long time before closing it and looking down. "…No."

"Can't say I'm surprised," William said. "But, after hearing your story, I think I can enlighten you."

Sissi looked up again, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I think Ulrich and Yumi knew about the bear long before it attacked," William said. "And if they were that close, I think Jeremie and Odd knew, too. You knew them better than I do, what do you think?"

Sissi had expected to be shocked by William's words, but to her surprise, she felt quite an opposite way. Her face contorted rather than expanded – her brows furrowed, her eyes flashed like fire, and her brain worked overtime to speed through as many memories as possible.

Jeremie and Odd, gone without a trace. Yumi, fighting past her to get to Ulrich. Ulrich, attacked by hundreds of students laughing at the thought of pain. The bear. The Prom. Ulrich, in day clothes – clearly he had come in a hurry. Her father's words, suddenly remembered – "I saw Della Robbia just outside the infirmary last evening, inquiring after Jim, though I can't imagine why." The destruction of her room. Ulrich, Yumi, Odd Jeremie, loitering always where they shouldn't be, and hurrying away – excuses, tardiness, secrets whispered between classes, wiped off the face of the earth…by chance, astounding, but by design…

"No," she found herself saying. "It's impossible – they- they were students, they-" Hot anger boiled in her throat. "How? But…all those secrets…No, it's impossible," she backpedaled. "They were victims, powerless …you're mocking their pain…!"

"I was wrong, then," William said. Sissi grimaced at him for a long time, determined not to lose her pride, but soon enough her face fell.

"Maybe not," she finally said, looking him in the eye. "But we'll never know for sure. Ulrich…well…they're gone."

"True," William said. "But they were here, once. And who knows how much they left behind?"

It took Sissi a moment to figure out what William was trying to say. "If you're trying to make me do something, or think something, you should stop. You're a student, I'm a refugee… we're powerless."

"Do you think that's how they thought?" William said. "The bear did defeat them, but do you think they expected it to?"

William's words struck an odd chord with Sissi, putting thoughts in her head that she wasn't used to having. She looked more closely at his confident smile, the like of which she hadn't seen in many, many months. "You're assuming they didn't," she said.

"I don't really have any other options." William glanced at his watch. "It's almost one. What should we do?"

"Well," Sissi said in a heavily sarcastic tone, "I can't see anything to do but go to the bed I still have. If you have any more miracle visions, you can let me know."

"And so I will." William stood up. "See you tomorrow?" He got no answer – Sissi was digging in her suitcase, looking for bedclothes. William shrugged, turned around, and headed for the door.

January 27
6:00 pm

The tomato hit the window with a loud bang, splattering rotted juice across the glass before it slid down the pane and out of sight.

It wasn't the first rotted fruit that Sissi had heard hit Avenshire that day, but it was the first one that had been thrown high enough to hit Room 404 in particular. The day had been punctuated with bangs, and even a crack around noon – it was enough to stand out from any other day, but not enough, or frequent enough, to get its inhabitants to wonder what was going on.

Indeed, the weekday routine had not been broken much at all in Room 404 so far. The working adults had not yet returned – indeed, they would not for another hour. Akiko had her back turned to this scene, and focused only on spoon-feeding her daughter her dinner. Luisa had swollen even larger as of late, and did not often leave her mattress. She was chatting with Sra. Yates, as she usually did during the day, but smiled and waved at everyone else when she could, as was her habit. Matthieu had been feeling ill, and the illness had shattered his good cheer. He was sitting upright on his mattress, covered in a blanket even though he was shirtless, and staring up at the tomato splotch on the window with a hard look in his eyes.

Without Matthieu to amuse them, Sissi and William were, at the moment, the playthings of the children. Lucille had taken charge of this latest game – she had made William stack her sisters' mattresses on top of her own, and now he, Sissi, Magali, Celine, and Hiroki were stuck at the bottom of the pile, bowing at Lucille's command.

"LISTEN UP!" Lucille yelled at the top of her lungs, brandishing a paper towel tube scepter at the kneelers below. "I'm the queen of Phorofor, and you all are my servants. Serve me!" she commanded.

"How?" Magali piped up. She was seated very close to Hiroki, an arrangement Hiroki was trying his best to ignore.

"Don't interrupt your queen!" Lucille yelled, pointing her scepter at her. "You will serve me by bowing and giving me ANYTHING I want!"

"And then what?" Magali continued.

"Nothing! I'm the queen, and you're my servants, and you do what I say!"

"Can I be the queen next? Hiroki can be the king." Magali looked over at Hiroki with a grin on her face. Hiroki blushed deep red and turned away, too flustered to say anything.

"NO! I told you already, I am the only queen!" Lucille crossed her arms in a huff. "You're going to serve me, and nobody and nothing else!"

William raised his hand, but only out of habit. "Queen Lucille," he said, "I think your methods are unjust and unfair for the people. I'm declaring a republic."

"They don't know what that is," Sissi hissed.

"At least I'm trying to have fun," William hissed back. Sissi rolled her eyes, but did not turn her head. William had not come to Room 404 at night for some time, and neither of them had ever brought up their visits during the day, or indeed interacted much at all when there were others in earshot. Lucille's game was the closest they'd been to each other in days.

Queen Lucille's laughter interrupted Sissi's thoughts. "Silence! There will be no republics! I am the only one who declares! Only me, only me!"

William put his hand on his chin, as if to think of a retort, but before he could, Sissi had a sudden idea. "If you're so high and mighty," she said, "Why don't you come down here and prove it?"

Lucille's eyes widened at the sight of Sissi participating, but at the same time a grin spread across her face. "You dare challenge me?" she said gleefully. "VERY WELL!"

Lucille hopped off the mattress stack, but not long after she pointed her scepter at Sissi, she noticed that Sissi was no longer there. When she turned around, she found Sissi climbing to the top of the stack and seating herself in Lucille's place. "Now I'M the queen!" she said triumphantly. "How d'you like that?"

Sissi found she had to choke back laughter at the look on Lucille's face. With a mighty roar, she lunged for the mattresses, but didn't do much more than claw at Sissi's pants, yelling about unfairness. It wasn't long before Sissi could no longer contain herself. With a loud shout of laughter, she kicked Lucille away, knocking her over but hardly harming her. When she hit the ground, she looked up at Sissi, and her eyes were wide with surprise. This set her laughing too, and William and Magalia had joined in, laughing hysterically. Even Hiroki giggled through his nerves, and somber Celine managed a faint smile.

Together they made a terrific noise, so much so that the adults couldn't help but look up at it. Akiko only gave it a glance, and Matthieu watched with a silent smile, but Luisa's face lit up at the sight. "Nunca los habia visto tan contentos, ¡especialmente a Sissi!" she said to Sra. Yates. "Estas cosas me llenan de esperanza, aunque este lugar tenga tan triste aspecto. No es mi intencón ofenderla, claro; su escuela es maravillosa, pero no muy hogareña."

"No se preocupe," Sra. Yates replied, folding her hands in her lap. "Lamento mucho que no la hayan cambiado de habitación. Ya no han hecho mas esfuerzos para establecerles una residencia permanente, como dijeron en noviembre."

"¿De que sirve quejarse? No cambiará nada," Luisa patted her stomach absentmindedly. "Me gustaría poderles decirselo personalmente. Debí poner mas atención en mis clases."

"Bueno, ¡pues para eso estoy yo!" Sra. Yates said. She turned herself towards William. [Mr. Dunbar!]

[Wha- yes?] William turned away from the game, which had gone on beyond the laughter. [What is it?]

[Luisa has a message for the room,] Sra. Yates said. [If you could relay it to them-] She stopped short, and looked at the door. [What is that sound?]

[Huh?] William turned to look where Sra. Yates was looking, and heard loud, fast footsteps in the hall. "I hear it too," he said, translating the message for everyone else. "The knob's turning. Someone's coming in!"

Sissi and the adults turned their attention to the door, which had, by that time, been thrown open. When they saw who was standing in the doorway, they couldn't believe their eyes. Mr. Delmas, the Mermonds, and Mr. Ishiyama never got off work early, and yet there they were, looking more haggard than they ever did after a full day's work.

Akiko was the first to react. "Darling!" she said, standing up and addressing her husband. "What are you doing back so soon-"

"A curfew," Mr. Delmas announced, interrupting her. "They've set a curfew for the refugees."

A hush fell over the room. Luisa and Sra. Yates looked confused, but Akiko's face wrinkled, Matthieu's was slowly darkening, and Sissi and William shot each other surprised looks. Magali, Lucille, Celine, and Hiroki, who did not quite understand the situation, ran immediately for their parents' arms, but did not say a word. Before long however, Akiko and Matthieu exploded in protest – "What do they mean, curfew? Are they cutting your hours?" "What do they think is wrong with us now, huh?"

"Give us a moment and I'll explain," Mr. Delmas went on as all of the adults walked back toward their camps. "William, can you relay this to Sra. Yates and Luisa? Sissi, put my mattress back where it's meant to be."

"Yes, sir," William said, standing up with Sissi. As he walked towards Luisa's camp, Sissi turned to her father with an incredulous look on her face. "Why should I put these back?" she said. "Lucille was the one that stacked them up!"

"Sissi, this is not the time," her father said. He had a heavy, worn look on his face, the kind that Sissi knew would increase his stubbornness, so she did as she was told. She replaced her father's mattress as well as her own, but left the girls' untouched in their pile. This done, she sat down on her mattress her father set his bag down by the side of the mattress and set himself next to her. As soon as everyone was settled in their places, all eyes turned to Mr. Delmas as he began to speak.

"A refugee man from a city shelter attacked a Dublin woman last night, at about three in the morning," he said in a heavy tone. "The woman lived, but…just barely. They say the man wasn't in his right mind, but I can't be sure of the details. What matters is… with that, not to mention the stories from London, martial law's up in arms to defend Dublin from us all. Six o'clock curfew, job restrictions…and not so warm a reception anymore, as I see." Mr. Delmas glanced over at the tomato residue, which was freezing on the window.

"But we didn't do anything," Matthieu spat, brushing his sister-in-law, who had been examining his forehead, away. "He wasn't even from Avenshire. Why are they punishing us?"

"No one's been told anything, of course," Mr. Delmas said. Across the room, Luisa gasped – the message had only just gotten to her. "But I have a feeling that the people of Dublin have been looking for an excuse like this for some time. Very few of them are happy that we're using up their resources and taking their jobs."

"But that only means that things will get worse, won't it?" Akiko held Hiroki closer to her breast, despite his slight struggling, and looked uncertainly at her husband and daughter. "Where will we go if they make us leave?"

"That I know that they cannot do," Mr. Delmas said. "But they can defend themselves from us, and I don't know how far that will take them." He looked down at his mattress, and shook his head. "Indeed, I don't know anything else. I'm sorry."

Mr. Delmas turned away from the room to focus on his suitcase, into which he placed his coat. The Mermond and Ishiyama camps whispered amongst each other as he did so, cut with Luisa's indignant if unintelligible shouts. Sissi was the only one who did not appear to react; she lay back on her mattress, looking up at the ceiling, looking as prone and defenseless as she often believed she was.

"You seemed to be having a good time over there, Sissi," she could hear her father saying, but didn't respond at first. After a few seconds, she saw him sitting back on his mattress out of the corner of her eye. "Weren't you? With William and the girls?"

"Yeah," Sissi said, still looking up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I guess I was."

"Damn them, haven't we had enough trouble?" Matthieu shouted from across the room before, after some whispers from his brother and sister-in-law, he was rendered inaudible. Mr. Delmas ignored him and went on to answer his daughter. "I know it's hard to hear, Sissi, but it's not the worst thing that could ever happen to us."

"You're not going to do anything," Sissi said, hardly making it sound like a question.

Mr. Delmas did not answer for a long time, and when he did, his tone was low and downtrodden. "No, no I won't. When our lives and sanity depend on these things, that's a luxury we can't really afford."

"So you say," Sissi said just as softly. She felt uneasy in her position, so she sat up, swinging herself to face her father. It had never struck her before how shabby his suit was getting, or how deep the circles under his eyes – perhaps, as she then realized, because she had never known to look. She couldn't stand focus on it for long, so she swung her gaze down to the pen and paper in his hand. There were several words written on it, but even with a cursory glance Sissi could tell that they were simply repetitions of three different phrases – Yes, No, and I don't know. "Are you…going to see Milly?"

"Well, I was, yes," Mr. Delmas said, looking down at them. "I haven't for quite a while, and with the extra time tonight it's a marvelous opportunity." He paused for a moment, mulling over his next words. "I don't quite want to broach the subject with her, but if she ever asks, would you like to join me-"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"I know that things weren't…their best, before, but I do believe that with enough time, Milly could benefit from another familiar face-"

"I wouldn't," Sissi said, rather harder than she had meant.

"Okay, I understand." Mr. Delmas stood up, and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "I'll see you at dinner, sweetheart." He tried to smile at her, but withdrew when he felt his daughter's muscles tensing under his hands.

Once he turned and walked back for the door, Sissi shuffled in her seat again, unable to find a comfortable position or state of mind. She had no time to dive into her thoughts before a weight on her left side told her that someone else had come to sit with her. "So," William said. "What's the old man doing this time?"

"None of your business."

"Now where have I heard that before?"

"He's the one that told me I had to get used to living here. That things were only going to get better. But now…" Sissi sighed heavily. "I don't even know if he thinks that."

William opened his mouth, but found he couldn't answer, so they sat quietly for a while, fidgeting with their hands. William shot curious glances at Sissi's unreadable face for some time, then took a deep breath. "Y'know, there's another event, on Saturday night…"

"I'm not going to a dance," Sissi said.

"It's not a dance," William said. "There aren't enough students left for that, and the one we had was a disaster anyway. One kid showed up drunk and the nuns cancelled the whole thing. I really don't know what they were expecting."

"Was it you?"

William didn't answer. "It'll just be sitting around with popcorn watching a movie. Kind of a borefest, but you know how it is. They're making me go as an interpreter, but…" He paused, considering his words. "If at least one person came that didn't bore me to tears…"

Sissi tensed. "What makes you think we're friends?"

"Not your pride, clearly." William shrugged. "It's your call, I'm just telling you it exists."

"Hm." Sissi looked over at William. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"There's that enthusiasm!" William's grin, unlike Mr. Delmas's, was completely sincere. "So, remember anything else about your friends?"

Before Sissi could respond, a scream from across the room interrupted them both: "¡LUISA!"

The possibilities behind it pushed everything else out of their minds; they both jumped up at the same time and looked over at Luisa's mattress. Everyone else in the room was doing what they'd just done, apart from Sra. Yates, who was bent over Luisa's mattress, patting her back. Luisa herself was curled up in a ball, gritting her teeth and holding her stomach. The bottom of her dress and half the mattress were soaked with a clear liquid. "Mi…mi hijo…" she was repeating softly.

"Is that…" Sissi began to say to William, but was interrupted by his nod – she didn't have to finish. All at once the adults of Room 404 descended on Luisa, creating such a fuss that Sissi and William could only barely determine what they were trying to do. Mr. Mermond and Mr. Ishiyama were trying to hold her up ("Don't worry, Luisa, we've got you!") while Akiko and Sandrine, the only ones in the room who had actually given birth, were swatting the men's hands away and pushing her back down ("What do you think you're doing? Give her some room!") Matthieu, ill as he was, kept his distance, but he alone could not manage to keep his nieces under control, and in the end could only restrain Celine – Lucille and Magali ran and jumped around the commotion, shrieking about the possibility of a new baby.

"Looks like this is going to be a fun night!" William folded his arms and grinned. Neither he nor Sissi had moved, nor had they been needed to, and they watched the commotion with interest. "You know, as awesome as I am, you don't have to do everything I do. If you want to look you can."

"I've never seen anything like this," Sissi said without turning her head, sounding uneasy. She couldn't actually see Luisa through the bodies around her, but the liquid, whatever it was, had her rattled enough. "If I just stay here and don't say anything…"

"¡Tranquilos, estoy bien!" Luisa yelled suddenly above the commotion around her. "¡Pueden faltar horas para que nazca mi bebé! No tienen porque hacer tanto alboroto, ¡ustedes no son médicos profecionales!" Her words sparked even more commotion, from the crowd, who could not understand her in the slightest.

Only Sra. Yates could answer her – "¿Ya quiere ir a la enfermería, Luisa? ¡Ahí la pueden ayudar más!" Then, louder, she continued – [Mr. Dunbar! William, can you hear me?]

[Huh? Oh, right here!] William shrugged at Sissi, then ran closer to Luisa's mattress, leaving Sissi alone by her own. [Do you need me to tell them anything, Señora?]

[Yes, in fact. Tell them that Luisa doesn't need to be crowded – we only need two of them to take us to the infirmary. Then go ahead there and tell them she's coming.]

[Understood,] William said. He opened his mouth to call Room 404 to attention, but found he didn't have to – all eyes were already on the translator. "Luisa says not to worry, the baby isn't coming yet-"

"But it COULD!" Magali blurted out.

"But it isn't," William said as Mr. Mermond clamped a hand over his daughter's mouth. "But she and Sra. Yates say that they should be taken to the infirmary by two, no more. I'll leave you to puzzle that out, I guess…" Without another word, William gathered up his clipboard and sped out the door.

Sandrine spoke up almost immediately after he left. "Okay, Akiko and I will go with Sra. Yates. Everyone else-"

"Wait a minute!" Akiko said, looking more frazzled than the rest. "Sandrine, I'm sorry, but I can't…I can't leave Yumi for that long…"

It hit Sissi suddenly that she had never seen Akiko leave Room 404 without Yumi, not even to use the bathroom, but she couldn't have predicted what Matthieu would shout across the room. "Why not? She isn't going anywhere!"

A tense silence fell. Akiko looked down at the ground, her mouth a hard line, and stepped backwards from Sandrine without another word. Her husband fell back to join her and placed a hand on her shoulder, staring daggers at the Mermonds. While Mr. Mermond looked on with apprehension, Sandrine was the only one that, while shocked, could hardly be bothered – there were evidently larger things on her mind. "We still need someone," she said brusquely. "Preferably female…"

Her eyes fell immediately on the Delmas camp. "Sissi, come grab her other arm."

"What? But…" Sissi balked very briefly, but inside that moment her eyes darted across the room, from the glowering Ishiyamas and stony Mermonds to the smile on Luisa's sweat-soaked face that seemed to be directed right at her. Before she could think, the word was out of her mouth. "Okay."

From the look on her face, Sandrine was just as surprised by Sissi's response as she was, but she didn't make any note of it. "Then there's no time to lose," she said instead.

After a small nod to Luisa, she grabbed her arm, and Sissi walked around and did the same. Together the three of them stood up, and, with Sra. Yates behind them, they walked for the door. They moved slowly, and with difficulty, but despite her pain Luisa was still smiling at Sissi. "Gracias, Sissi," she said slowly. "Nos estás haciendo un gran favor."

Sissi didn't know how to answer, so she smiled faintly and nodded. Before long, they left Room 404 and began making their way down the hall. The door closed behind them fairly quickly, but not before one stray sentence – "You know, you could have offered her Yumi's wheelchair…" managed to slip through.

It was almost midnight when Sissi returned to Room 404. Luisa would not be leaving the infirmary for several days, William had been made to go back to his room, and Sra. Yates had elected to stay with her through the night, but they had felt it best that Sissi and Sandrine return in order to give Luisa the opportunity to rest – as well as report back to the rest of the room.

They did not speak to each other during the journey, just as they hardly ever spoke at all, until just before they arrived at the door to Room 404. At that point, Sandrine turned her head to her, hesitated slightly, then said, "If you could contribute some of the explanation…"

"Mmm." Sissi nodded as much as was necessary while Sandrine opened the door into Room 404. Everyone was still awake, and sat in their camps, muttering excitedly to one another. Mr. Delmas, who had returned, sat by himself, yelling to both camps, and Luisa's soiled mattress had been removed.

They all looked up when Sandrine entered. "It's a boy," she said. "Salomón Gabriel Delarosa."

If there was any tension left in the room, it dissipated immediately. Everyone clapped and cheered, even the Ishiyamas, who were far quieter about it. Mr. Delmas, Sissi noticed, was looking up at her in particular, with an expression she couldn't quite read from such a distance.

Sandrine did most of the talking, but Sissi did contribute some, as she had been told to do, although she moved slower than Sandrine, and with a fair bit more stammering.

Just as Luisa had said, not much had actually happened for several hours. First, they had had to wait for a doctor to be called from a Dublin hospital, and then for him and his team to arrive and set up, and then, from there, for Luisa to be ready. It was during this time that Sissi had had her first real conversation with Luisa, by way of William and Sra. Yates. She had apologized for not talking to her earlier, and had thanked her again and again. Sissi had responded with cursory greetings, unsure of what to say, and when Luisa had asked her if she was still sad, she had declined to respond at all.

Once the baby crowned at about eleven o'clock, the delivery itself was smooth. Neither Sissi nor Sandrine had seen it, as a sheet had been put up across Luisa's middle, but she had heard it, that much was for sure. She heard Luisa's shouts of pain, everyone's continued commands for her to push, the doctor's muttered orders to his assistants, and even a nurse swearing loudly when Luisa lost control and punched her in the face. And then finally, without any warning, the newborn's forceful cry, which silenced everything else. Once he had been wrapped in a blanket and put into Luisa's arms, Sissi and Sandrine had decided to leave, and knew no more.

"When can we see the baby?" Lucille yelled. She and Magali had been hanging on to every word of the story.

"Not until he comes back to the room, dear," Sandrine said. "And now that I'm back, it's time for bed. That's what we said, wasn't it?"

The Mermond girls hemmed and hawed, but everyone else mumbled their assent, and so the preparations for bed began. Sissi didn't pay them any more mind – she returned to her camp, where her father was waiting for her on his mattress, with an expression she could now recognize as pride. "Good evening." He said. "That was good of you, you know, going along."

"Mhm." Sissi pulled her pajamas out of her bag, stepped into a corner, and began to change. This was the room's custom, and she had adopted it without thinking. Halfway through she remembered that she usually changed in the closet, but by then it was too late.

Normally such a short response might have irritated her father, but his response was calm. "You must be exhausted," he said. "I'll let you have your rest. Goodnight, Sissi."

"Goodnight," Sissi replied, shoving her shirt over her head. She gave her father a small smile, then climbed into her mattress.

Though she closed her eyes, the twisting in her chest, the images in her head, and the possibilities of the waking world kept her awake for hours. She mulled over William's words and implications, the world inside his head and the world around her. Even a year ago she would never have agreed to assist Luisa – but there was a new urge inside her, an urge entirely unknown, that had made the impossible possible.

"The bear did defeat them, but do you think they expected it to?" Bravery, she thought to herself. That was what Ulrich had had, what even William had in small quantities, and what she so desperately wanted for herself. Bravery, not compassion, led her to Luisa. But where bravery would lead her next, she had not the faintest idea. This was the last thought she had before she slipped to sleep, so seamlessly that she hardly realized she had.

There was a rustling in the corner of the room.

It was dark, pitch black in fact, but she couldn't tell whether her eyes were open or not. The rustling continued, softly and consistently. She made no effort to wonder where it was from; in a pitch black world, there was no where or when.

"I'm here, { }…yeah, I'm fine…no, no, I can't see anything…"

There was music, far away, perhaps on the other side of the black. Background noise, it could be. She was content. They fit together well.

"It's pitch black in here…no, I don't think it's { }. I can see my hands, and they're { }."

It was unlike any music that she had ever heard. It dipped in and out, in a tone that was new, but familiar. It teased and tickled her ears, turning them inside out. Harmony and sensibility were two things that had been lost to her lately, with all of the telling and hearing and living stories that couldn't possibly be true.

"No, I can't tell where I am. I think I'm { }…there are a bunch of people sleeping in here. { }, I don't really get why I was { } here…wait…what…what is this…this isn't { }…"

There were more soft rustling sounds, and a small gasp. A new thread appeared in her perception - the music couldn't be understood because it wasn't music at all. For the first time, she felt her hands at her sides and her eyelids over the darkness.

" { }…something really weird is going on…"

The walls of Room 404 materialized before her eyes. She stared at them, dazed, before she remembered what she had opened her eyes for. She lifted her head, sat up, and turned around.

Yumi was sitting upright on her mattress. Her eyes were alive and alert, and she was alternating her gaze between the door's glass pane and her right hand, which she was holding in front of her face.

She felt a wave of nausea bubbling and distorting her view, turning it upside down and inside out, but the core, the image that penetrated deepest in her mind, was clear. When she spoke, her mouth felt disconnected from the rest of her face."Yumi…?"

Yumi's eyes bulged, and she turned swiftly to where Sissi sat, her jaw dropping in transit. "Oh my god," she whispered. "It's Sissi!"

"Yumi!" Sissi shouted, but Yumi did not answer. Her eyes had grown still in their sockets, and her arms had fallen to her sides. As Sissi watched, she fell back on her mattress, still and silent, her face frozen in its usual expression.

That was cool, wasn't it? Oh, here's the translations for the Spanish:

"I've never seen them all so happy, especially Sissi! Seeing things like this makes me feel more hopeful, even if this place is supposed to be dreary. No offense meant, of course. Your school is wonderful but it's not exactly home."

"None taken. I'm appalled that they haven't moved you out of here yet. There's been no move towards the permanent housing they talked about in November."

"I can't complain. Nothing will come of it. I wish I could say this to them. I should have paid more attention in my classes."

"Well, that's why I'm here."

"Everyone, I'm fine! The baby might not come for hours! You don't have to make a fuss, none of you are medical professionals!"

"Do you want to go to the infirmary now, Luisa? They can help you more there!"

"Thank you, Sissi. You're doing us a great favor."

- Carth