T

widdling his thumbs, Andrew sat on a bench, his back against the wall. He looked up at the door facing him. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. It didn’t help. There was nothing he

could do to shake off the anxiety. The door opened. Andrew continued to stare as a woman came out, turned around and closed the door. It was a nurse. Andrew grabbed his book bag, jumped to his feet and straightened up.

The nurse sighed and studied him for a moment, as though unwilling to reply. “Andrew, was it?”
“Yes.” Andrew said again, this time more urgently, “How is he?”
“His body is still in good condition, all things considered. There hasn’t been much change in the past twenty-four hours.” She hesitated. “There’s really nothing more for me to say that I haven’t already said. Maybe you should come back tomorrow.”
“I-I want to see him now.”
“I don’t want you to keep your hopes up. The doctor still is clueless about his current condition.”
“I know. But I still want to see him.”
The nurse nodded wordlessly and walked away.
Andrew placed his hand on the handle of the door. He swallowed. A small bead of sweat trickled down the back of his neck. He entered the patient’s room. His breathing slowed as his eyes came across the foot of the bed. Time almost came to a standstill as he gazed over Kevin’s peaceful face.
Andrew drew near to Kevin’s bed, as he lay there unconscious.
“Hey Kevin,” said Andrew, trying to sound cheerful, “I just thought I’d drop by and say hello.” Andrew dropped his backpack by the bed and unzipped it. “I know you’re going to hate me for this, but I brought all your homework.” He took out a stack of papers from his bag and placed it on the table, right on top of the existing stack. “How are you doing? Are you feeling any better?”
Andrew continued, “I know you’re probably sick and tired of me talking about it. But after the past week, everything went back to normal. No one really remembers much. All they know is that everyone was asleep for a few days. They don’t remember their dreams. No one knows what we did. That’s for the best I think. Besides, it’s not like we did anything special.”
Scratching his cheek, Andrew thought for a moment. “Speaking of which, this morning on the news they were talking about it. They were interviewing people. I’m not sure who they were. Probably some scientists and some conspiracy theorists. All of them were confused of course. One guy was saying it was an elaborate plot from the government to cut back on food consumption, like some forced diet so that our population would lose some weight. Another was saying it was a terrorist attack by radicals who thought society placed too much emphasis on working and not enough time on rest. People can sure come up with some crazy ideas, huh?” Andrew chuckled to break the silence of the room. “But then again, those crazy ideas aren’t crazy enough to be the truth.” Andrew waited for a response. Kevin was still motionless.
Then Andrew said, “I heard from Tom yesterday. I wasn’t able to contact him before. I tried calling him over the past few days and he only ended up calling back last night. He’s doing well. He told me these stories of how he fought this massive battle against Kain while we were all asleep. I’m amazed he isn’t traumatized by the experience. I still get nightmares every night of that dragon. Just remembering that moment when I was almost…” He paused. “It’s scary to think that the dragon is still out there. That’s probably what haunts me the most.” Andrew shivered. “I hope Kain isn’t looking for some personal revenge. I’d hate to open the front door one day and see that cranky old dragon at my door step.”
Kevin said nothing.
Andrew felt a lump in his throat. “Say something. Tell me something. I want to know what went through your head at that last moment. You knew this would happen, didn’t you?” Exasperated, Andrew slammed his fist against the mattress. “Why didn’t you tell us this would happen?” Andrew broke down, unable to look upon Kevin’s emotionless face. “I don’t want to see you like this. I don’t want to see you…die like this. If only I had known…I don’t know what I would’ve done, but I would’ve done anything I could to prevent this!” Andrew dried his teary eyes with the sleeve of his shirt. “But I guess…it wouldn’t matter.” Andrew grinned bitterly. “If I were in your shoes, I would’ve done the same thing. Because it’s all about how much the world means to you. It was the chance of a lifetime. We saved the world. It’s silly, isn’t it? We always watch movies or read books about people saving the world. It’s totally overdone. I’d gotten sick of it. But given the chance to do it in real life? I’d do it as much as I could.” He bit his lip. “Well, better not jinx myself. I’d hate to end up in that situation again.”
Andrew sighed thoughtfully. “That’s all I have to say for now. It’s about time for me to go. I’ll try to come again tomorrow. Maybe Katie will come too.” Andrew picked up his bag and walked toward the door. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at Kevin one more time. He turned away and then did a double take. To his surprise, Kevin was sitting upright and smiling back at him. Andrew rubbed his eyes, thinking it was just his imagination or an illusion. But it wasn’t. Kevin was really sitting up.
Speechless, Andrew froze.
“I know what you’re going to say,” said Kevin. “And yes, I was awake the whole time.”
Andrew stuttered, “Bu-bu-but how? Bu-bu-but why?”
Kevin shrugged. “I woke up in this morning.”
“But the nurse said—”
Kevin laughed. “When she told me you’d been coming to see me everyday, I told her to act the same as she always does. I wanted to surprise you myself.”
Andrew stared at him for a long time. Suddenly, he ran to bed and gave him a strong bear hug.
Feeling the pain of being squeezed, Kevin managed to breath out, “Hey! You’re going to snap me in half! I don’t want to be stuck in the hospital for another week!”
“Oh, sorry,” Andrew released him and backed away, his cheeks flushed. “I got a little carried away there.”
“It’s okay,” said Kevin, coughing. “I’m happy I’m alive too. Really. Now go on. Get out of here.”
“So soon?” Andrew cocked his head. “But now I can actually talk to you for real!”
“Sorry, but I’m still not feeling all that well. I want to rest. I’ll be getting out tomorrow. I’ll see you at the bus stop on Friday.”

“Thank you for coming!” Kevin bowed jokingly before Andrew, Katie and Tom. “This is our official…um…everything’s-back-tonormal celebration!” He popped open a can of soda for an audible effect. No one cheered. They all stared at Kevin, their brows raised.

Tom shifted in his seat, glancing around the food court. “I can’t believe we’re doing this openly in a mall. What if people listen in?”
Kevin shrugged. “Are you listening to the people next to us?”
Tom said, “Not really.”
“See? Who cares?” Kevin sat down at the table. “Now, let’s begin our meeting.” He turned to Tom. “What I really wanted to know was what happened to Genesis? You guys haven’t said a word about any of the agents from the HPC.”
“I don’t know,” Tom replied.
“You don’t know? But didn’t you see Kain?”
“I did,” said Tom. “But Genesis wasn’t around. Genesis, Luna, Terminus…I didn’t see them during or after the battle. They just disappeared.”
Eyes wide open, Kevin stared solemnly at Tom. Then he turned to Andrew and Katie. “No one has seen them?” They shook their heads in reply.
Andrew said, “They haven’t tried to contact us. For the past week I’ve been searching around town. Tom’s been searching in Korgen. There’s no trace of them. And the animals won’t speak to us anymore. Everything is back to normal.”
“That’s…” His face downcast, Kevin wasn’t sure what to say. “That’s disappointing. I can’t believe it.” He looked at Tom. “Not even Helios will say anything?”
Tom said, “Well, I haven’t seen him. I tried going into the sewers—which was a lot of trouble I might add—but the rats aren’t talking. I guess all the animals are pretty serious about the no-talking rule.”
Kevin became silent. There was a long pause as the four of them just listened to the chatter all around them.
Andrew cleared his throat. “Kevin, isn’t it about time you explained what happened at the end of the dream thing? It all happened rather suddenly…and I was totally clueless at the time.”
Kevin said, “I guess I might as well tell you guys all about it, though it’s probably not as impressive of a story as you would hope. I’ll do a quick recap. After I got plugged into the device, I used it to gain control of the dream. With it, I knocked some sense into Andrew and searched for someone else to help. Someone came to me, but not what I expected. He was a strange guy. Told me I was interfering with his plans. He called himself the boogeyman. At that moment, I was pretty scared. I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I wasn’t sure if he was really the boogeyman. And if he was, what could I really do against him? I wanted to stop him, but really, there was nothing I could do. So I ran to you guys for help. Alone, I couldn’t do anything. But with the three of us…I knew we could overpower him. But I needed to use the most powerful thing I could think of.”
“An atomic bomb?” said Andrew.
“Yeah!” said Kevin. “As I said in the dream, the only way for something to become effective is if your subconscious accepts it as truth. I may not have seen one in real life, but I know for a fact that it exists.”
“To be honest,” said Andrew, “a hydrogen bomb is more powerful than an atomic bomb…”
Kevin stared at Andrew. “Oh…well, uh…too late for that. It still worked.”
Tom looked confused. “Wait. Does that mean the boogeyman was the cause of that huge mess?”
“I don’t know for sure,” said Kevin. “But that’s what I’m thinking. My perspective is this: the boogeyman was like a small time criminal—like a pickpocket. Then, by chance, he had the opportunity to hit it big, like as if he suddenly got the power to rob a huge bank.”
“That’s an interesting perspective,” said Andrew.
Kevin smiled. “Isn’t it?”
“Sounds like a bunch of guess work,” said Katie. “You don’t know even know where that thing came from, do you? What if it was your own dream? Maybe it was totally a figment of your imagination. Maybe the boogeyman never existed…Maybe it was just another part of you—a part of you that didn’t want the dream world to end. That would explain why only you were able to hurt it.”
Kevin’s smiled widened. “Maybe.”
Katie growled, “What’s with that smug look? If you don’t really know what happened, we don’t really know for sure if we solved the problem! What if this whole mess starts up again?”
“Someone will deal with it when the time comes, I guess.” Standing up, Kevin said, “And speaking of time, it’s getting kind of late. I’d better get going.”
Andrew said, “What’s the rush? We haven’t had the chance to just sit down and relax.”
“All this stuff has got me thinking,” Kevin said. “You have to live every day like it’s your last because you never know what might happen. I got some homework to do and this time I plan on finishing it tonight. Tomorrow is Saturday. We can hang out then.”
Katie stood up and pushed her chair in. “If we’re done here, I might as well go home now.”
“You too?” asked Tom.
“Yeah,” said Katie. “My mom’s worried about me. I shouldn’t keep her waiting.”
Kevin shot a confused look at her. “Your mom? What the— Since when did you care about going home early? I thought you hated your parents.” Katie shrugged silently and left.
Kevin pointed at her and raised a brow at Andrew. “What’s going on?”
“Some things have changed over the week,” said Andrew.
Tom grabbed his backpack. “I guess this is goodbye. I have to help my parent’s with their business.”
Andrew asked, “The movie theatre?”
“Nope,” said Tom. “It’s the little grocery store on Felix Avenue.”
“You don’t mean—”
Tom said, “I’ll explain later. Let’s just say I have a bad habit when it comes to…uh…being honest. And it’s caused more trouble than it was worth.” He waved goodbye and disappeared into the crowd.
Kevin straightened, looking at Andrew. “Shall we go?”
Andrew nodded. He cleaned the trash off the table, got his stuff and followed after Kevin. While walking, he bumped into someone. It was Freddie.
Freddie said, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t Andr—”
Andrew said quickly and confidently, “You should find better things to do with your time than waste mine and yours.” As he left, he said, “Every day is important. Every single day.”
Freddie stared at Andrew as he headed for the exit. “What was that all about?”

His dad was reclining on the sofa. When he heard Kevin entering through the front door, he turned off the TV and sat up.
His dad said dryly, “Where have you been?”
“I was out with some friends,” Kevin replied.
“You should have called me.”
“Sorry,” said Kevin. “I didn’t want to disturb you at work.”
“At work? Kevin, it’s almost eight.” His dad started to sound serious.
“Really?” Kevin checked his wrist. He didn’t have his wristwatch. “Wow, I had no idea. Time sure goes fast when you don’t have a watch. I wonder where it went.”
“Did you have dinner?”
“No. Only a small snack. I’m starving.”
“It’s in the fridge.”
Kevin nodded. “Okay. Where’s mom?”
“She’s sleeping. She’s had a rough day.”
Kevin smiled. “I wouldn’t want to wake her.”
Kevin went to his room and dropped his book bag on the floor. “Speaking of rest...” He jumped onto his bed and dug his face into the pillow. “Ahh…never thought I’d miss sleeping so much…even after a week-long coma.”
A voice suddenly said, “Are you sure you want to take a nap? You’ll miss dinner.”
“Yeah,” said Kevin. “But unless the whole world goes into a famine, I think I should be fine.” Wondering who had said that, Kevin looked around. A yellow Lab was sitting by his bed. Kevin bolted upright.
“Genesis!” Kevin shouted in excitement. “What are you doing here?”
Genesis replied, “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d see how you were doing.”
A black cat crawled out from under the bed and stretched its legs. “Oh, so the boy is finally back. I was tired of waiting.”
Kevin smiled. “Luna! You’re here too!”
A parakeet flew down from the curtain and landed on Kevin’s pillow. “Good to see you, Kevin.”
“Terminus!”
The drawer of Kevin’s dresser suddenly cracked open. A white rat stuck his head out.
“Oh…” said Kevin, his enthusiasm fading. “And Helios…”
“Hey,” snapped Helios. “Am I the only one you’re not happy to see?”
Kevin said, “I might be able to get away with letting a dog, cat and bird in the house…but a rat? No way. If my mom—”
“KEVIN!” The door flung open. His mom popped her head in. “Can you please keep it down? A lot happened at work today and I really, really need to…” Her voice trailed off as she goggled at the sight before her. “WHA-WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? WHERE DID ALL THESE ANIMALS COME FROM? WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY HOUSE? AND A RAT?! A RAT?! WHY IS THERE A RAT IN THE DRAWER?” She turned around, ran into the hall and screamed to her husband, “HONEY! CALL ANIMAL CONTROL! GET THE EXTERMINATOR! WE’VE GOT A PROBLEM!”
“Oh boy.” Kevin ran to the door, slammed it and locked it. “You guys should get out the window before my mom gets back.”
“Very well,” said Genesis. “But before we go, I’d just like to say that we’ll be hanging around the neighborhood for a while. Official HPC business.”
Kevin cocked his head out of curiosity.
Genesis continued, “We’ll be watching over you and the others.”
Luna added, “Because you never know when Kain might return.”
Helios nodded. “There’s that, but we also aren’t sure if we’ve managed to solve the sleeping epidemic for good. So to be on the safe side, we’ll be around. We apologize in advance for the trouble we’ll cause.”
Terminus said, “But of course, if you don’t want us around, we understand completely and will give you your space as needed.”
“Say no more,” said Kevin. “I don’t care about the trouble.” His face was split by a wide grin. “You guys are welcome to bring as much trouble as you like.”
Before Genesis hopped out the window, he barked, “Then we’ll see you and the others tomorrow.”
“Sure,” said Kevin, unable to stop smiling. “Sure…”