“Arthur and Emily?” I asked.
“Looks like it,” said Henry. “It makes me wonder who else we’re going to meet here.”
Anabel turned to go. “As I said, time to take a stand. Think about my offer. What is it they say? My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” She turned back to us once more and winked at me. “And it’s only just begun.”
THE RULE BOOK OF DREAMS
Would you like to visit your friends in their dreams? No problem—the rules are easy.
1. You need something personal belonging to the person you want to visit. When you go to sleep, you must have it somewhere on your body. (So it’s best to choose something small, not a bicycle or anything like that, which would make it crowded in your bed. And uncomfortable.)
2. In the dream, you must look out for your own personal dream door—only you know what it looks like. This is a little tricky, because only when you touch the door in your dream will you realize that you are in a state known as lucid dreaming.
3. Now it’s up to you: Will you dare to go through that door? It will take you into the corridors into which all the dream doors of everyone in the world lead. There are countless passages and branching corridors, so be careful not to lose your way. And take good notice of what your door looks like!
4. Next you must find the door of the person you want to visit. Although dream doors often change their places, those of the people closest to us are usually near our own. And generally they reflect the true characters of their owners—so now you will find out how well you really know your friends.
5. When you have found the right door, you sometimes have an obstacle to overcome. Many people’s subconscious minds feel a need to protect their doors from intruders. If you know your friend well, however, you will probably get through the door easily enough. It is different if the dreamer is protecting his or her own door deliberately, something that I would recommend you do as well while you are about it. Unfortunately we never know who else is roaming the corridor, and I don’t suppose you want uninvited guests in your dreams, do you?
6. In your friend’s dream, and also in your own, you can take on any shape you like. If you’re really good at it, you can even make yourself completely invisible. However, you can also appear as yourself and do all the things that you wouldn’t dare to do awake in daytime. As a rule, the other person won’t remember anything about the dream on waking; we remember only a small part of our dreams. And go carefully: if the other person wakes while you are in his or her dream, it will be uncomfortable. The dream collapses, and you fall into a kind of black hole and won’t be able to breathe until you are awake again yourself.
7. Of course it’s not very nice to spy on someone’s dreams in secret—it’s better for you and your friend to meet in the corridor and decide whose dream to visit. The best of it is that in a dream you can travel anywhere, to any place in the world, and you can even think up places that don’t really exist. You can do simply anything.
8. Have fun! But don’t overdo it: sleep is not very refreshing while you are having lucid dreams, and if you do it all night, you could drop off to sleep in school and dribble on your math book—and no one really wants to do that.
9. Oh yes, and if you happen to meet Anabel or Arthur, run for it as fast as you can.
LOTTIE’S ALL-THE-YEAR-ROUND COMFORT VANILLA CRESCENTS
You will need: 1 stick plus 6 tablespoons softened butter Scant ? cup sugar
1 vanilla pod
1? cup flour
Scant ? cup ground almonds After baking:
? cup confectioner’s sugar ? cup of vanilla sugar (optional) These ingredients will make about 40 small vanilla crescents.
Heat the oven to 375° F. Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is smooth. Slit the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape out the inside of it, and add to the butter mixture. Sift in the flour, add the ground almonds, and work it all together. (Using your hands is the best way.) Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in foil or plastic wrap, and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. (Leave out this stage only in an emergency.) Then roll the dough into a sausage shape and cut into pieces about one inch wide. Shape the little pieces into crescents and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake the crescents on the middle rack for 10 minutes, until light brown. Mix the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla sugar (if using), and sprinkle over the hot crescents. Let them cool entirely on the baking sheet; these cookies are very fragile.
Then feed them fast to everyone in need of comfort, along with friendly remarks like “Everything will be all right.” (Or you can put them in a tin where they will keep crisp, and they can be eaten all week to comfort people.) Have a good time!
CAST OF CHARACTERS