The next night she had a dream in that same world. In the dream world it wasn't the next day. But it was after the accident. Just after enough to be the next logical step. Everything that happened between the day of the accident and the second dream was just noise. Kind of like how in TV shows they would only show scenes that moved the plot along.

In the second dream she was at a park. Swinging alone. Now she could tell it was fall. The school year was no longer new. Everybody was settled in now into the new ways. A lot of the dreams of who kids would be that year were either validated or crushed. Then the accident happened and everything felt new again. It was like the school year had to begin again.

Imogen forgot about these days. She spent so many of them on that swingset. Nobody from her school ever went to that park. It was hidden in a secluded neighborhood. She hadn't thought about that park in all these years. Now the bright white gray sky and the squeak of the metal chains. The sound of wind. The chill that made her always need a hoodie. It came back rushing to her.

This time she didn't wake up in sweat. 

Imogen Howe

woke up to a chill she felt to her bone. Strange because it was the dead of summer smack dab in the middle of a sticky 

Heat

 wave.