Are you there?

It came as a whisper, or a thought perhaps.

“Are you there?”

Startled, I tensed momentarily. Caught between sleep and wakefulness.

Was it real?

This voice, did I hear it in my ear, or in my head?

I pondered all this and more.

To who did this voice belong? Was it simply me? Though it didn’t seem so.

I listened for more, to no avail. Whoever was there, between the two worlds, I could no longer hear.

What possible life of mine exists when my body sleeps? Who is there waiting for me to slip once more into that alternate reality?

Maybe it is only by chance that we meet there on occasion, she in her world and I in mine.

Do any rules apply to our actions there, in that world of dreams?