"So, what did you dream about?" Trevor asked Abby. "You mind me asking?"​

     "How could I mind?"

     "Are we going dream by dream around the room?" Niki asked.

     "Why not?" Trevor asked/replied.

     "That leaves me out," Malika said.

     "My dream wasn't that odd," Abby said.

     "Mine was," Trevor replied.

     "Mine, too," Niki replied.

     "In my dream," Abby said, "I was sitting in my living room in more or less the same way I am now, and my kids were still my kids, only..." Abby shook her head. "Everything felt different. It was like I had a different mind."

     "How about you?" Trevor asked Gramps. "Are you anything like the Gramps I knew in my dream?"

​     Gramps stared at a wall rather than respond. As Trevor struggled to figure out a way to ask the question in another manner, a thin woman his age came through the front door.

     "Am I the first one here?" she asked.

​     "Cathy's on her way," Abby replied. "We haven't heard from Skip, yet."

     The woman got a look around, then pointed.

     "Trevor," she said. She sounded amazed at herself for knowing the name of the man she pointed at after not being introduced to him first.

     She pointed again.

     "Niki Creole," she said.

     Niki pointed back. "Alison Dawson," she said.

     "Not Dawson, not anymore. Allington."

     "In my dream, though..."

​     "I know. I know. Our dreams. Our dreams. In my dream, we lived in a world where we were given all the food we wanted, and it tasted any way we wanted it to taste, but, for some reason, I hated the place. I hated living there, even though, you know...You look fit. Military?"

     "We own our own gym on the corner of Twelfth and Fairmont." 

     "I know the gym. Women only."

     "That's not true. Anyone's welcome."

     "That's the reputation, though."

     "If you mean we try to create an atmosphere where women can feel free to focus on themselves without self-consciousness, then, yes, I guess the reputation's deserved. Your eyes look sad when they look into mine. Why is that?"

     Just then, there was a tap on the front door.

     "Saved by the bell," Malika said. 

CONTINUE 

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