Chapter 4: J'adoube
Fujiwara no Okikaze, Kokinshu 569:
suffering I try
resolutely to put you
from my mind but still
these things called dreams deceive me
into fresh anticipation
Peter felt like he'd just closed his eyes when he was roused by something metallic clinging against the glass top of the coffee table.
At first, in the meager light, his bleary eyes couldn't make out the object on the table.
He picked it up. It looked just like the silver coin he used to have. Where had that come from?
As his eyes adjusted, Olivia seemed to appear in the middle of his living room. For a brief moment he worried about what she'd think of him falling asleep in his boxers and teeshirt on his living room couch. But then, she was the one who was trespassing.
He sat up. "What's the case?" he mumbled in resignation.
She just stared at him. "What?"
"I said what's the case. It'd better be a good one; I just went to sleep."
Olivia looked at him, then shook her head. "Peter, don't you recognize me? It's me. Olivia."
He stared at her, eyes widening. It couldn't possibly be true. "Olivia?" He shook his head. "Is that you? Really you?"
"Peter, I know this doesn't make sense, but we're dreaming. I think I'm in your dream. I found you."
She reached out and touched his face. Her hand felt so real.
"Olivia..." he breathed. Then doubt clouded his eyes. "I'm not where you are. I'm in a different timeline, another dimension. Something happened after the machine. Something went wrong. I died here."
"I'm going to bring you back, Peter. I'm going to find a way. I promise."
Peter pressed his hand over hers. But it didn't feel real anymore; it felt like touching his own skin. He was waking up, or she was. "No. No. Wait, Olivia. Olivia!"
He reached for her. His hand lifted into the air.
The room was as deserted as it had been when he fell asleep.
Olivia was gone, and he felt empty and alone.
He lay back down and closed his eyes, close to tears. "Olivia..."
He couldn't fall back asleep. Was that just another dream, or had Olivia—his Olivia—really come to him? It had seemed so real.
But so had so many other dreams since he'd come here.