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I achieved total recall, I opened my eyes.
    “What the heck!” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I blinked and Atlas was staring into my face. My outburst had alarmed him. I reached out to pet his big head. “It’s okay big guy. What am I doing here, on the divan?” His answer was to trot off in the direction of the kitchen.
    I got up and gathered the blanket around me, that was when I heard Alex say, “Stay right there.” I turned in his direction to see Alex and Atlas in the parlor, standing a few feet away. Alex held a large service tray in both hands. The aroma spilling forth from the coffee carafe convinced me to sit back down. I hugged the blanket around me and looked up at Alex.
    “Are you steady enough to hold a cup?” Alex asked.
    I reached out with both hands trembling. “Yeah, I think so.” I cradled the warm coffee cup in both hands. The very presence of its warmth and what it stood for brought me to my senses. I sipped carefully, nothing quite like the reality of the taste of strong black coffee to bring one back into the world of the living.
    Alex had pulled an armchair up close to me, leaving just enough space between our legs and feet for Atlas to lodge himself between us and lay down on the carpeted floor. I could not help but to giggle, just a little, while thinking to myself, that I have a one hundred and eighty pound dog at my feet and a tall, dark and handsome man at my fingertips. How bad of a dream could it have been? But this was reality and Alex’s somber look brought me back to it. “So which one of my heroes dragged me down the stairs?”
    Alex reached out and took the coffee cup from my hands, he set it on the side table. He held my hands in his. “No one dragged you anywhere. Atlas alarmed me to your terror and I carried you here. I slept on the other divan, across from you. I did not leave you alone until this morning. I needed to get dressed and make this coffee. And I can honestly say that you were never really alone. Atlas kept guard on you if I was not here.”
    Te ars welled in my eyes. I reached down to pat Atlas, “Thank you big guy. And thank you, too,” I said to Alex. “I remember a dream, a lucid dream, but being scared, uh-uh, I can’t remember that. Tell me what happened.”
    Alex gave me refills on coffee and then sat back and said, “I awoke to Atlas standing at full attention letting out a bloodcurdling banshee howl and then, even before I could jump out of bed, Atlas sprang from the bedroom. I heard him thundering up the stairs. When I reached your bedroom, Atlas was on the bed and you were hugging him for dear life. I called your name and you did not respond. That was when I picked you up, bedcovers and all, and brought you here. Once I got you tucked in on the divan you fell back to sleep. You never uttered so much as a whimper after that. Shannon, what frightened you?”
    My thoughts went blank and I stared out the window, trying to recall, then I looked at Alex and said, “I do not know. I remember a dream, but I don’t think the dream was especially scary.”
    “Tell me about your dream.”
    “It was surreal and yet vivid and lucid. I knew I was in a dream as I stood in a fog swirling all around me. I know I was standing, and yet, I was not standing on anything, no bare ground, floor or pavement beneath my feet. I felt a rush of wind all over my body and at first I thought I was floating or falling but when I looked around I realized I was not moving. Instead, everything around me was moving, forward, no, what I mean is, I had the feeling that I was moving forward but in reality the rush of wind was caused by everything that was moving past me, making me feel as if I was rushing forward.” I stopped, frustrated and confused.
    “What do you mean by everything ? And was it dark or light?” Alex asked.
    “Hmm, it was gray, without color or dimension. There were other beings around me that I couldn’t see and yet, I could hear whispers, lots of voices in