(xlix.)

"Pierpont, are you okay?"

He awoke to find Muffy hovering over him.

"Pierpont?"
"What? I... uh..."
"Are you okay?"
"Oh... um... yeah..." he said, looking around.

He sat up.

"So... you came back?"
"Well, I was kinda worried about you, yeah."
"Oh."
"And, I mean, you have this thing going on with Allouysious... and, in your sleep, I think you've said things about someone named... Chad, I think it was?"

She sat down on the couch next to him.

"Pierpont, are you sure you're okay?"

He leaned onto her.

"Please, for the love of God, tell me it was all a dream. Just one really bad dream. Please, tell me that everything that's gone wrong these past couple of months was just a bad dream, and that I'm going to get in my car and go to work and when I get there we won't really be bankrupt, and Miss Taylor will tell me that the ice cream truck didn't really blow up, and that-- that-- that there wasn't even really an ice cream truck to begin with, and that Fred never really died, and neither did Lory, and she'll be there with coffee, to tell me all about the most insignificant part of the Canadians' plan to send up a weather balloon, because that's the most interesting and dangerous thing that anyone else is doing..."

Muffy shook her head.

"I really hate to tell you this, but..."

She sighed heavily.

"God damnit!" He screamed, pulling away, and burying his face in his hands. "I knew it. I knew it was real. I knew it couldn't've been a dream, but I just wish it was so badly..."

"It's okay, Pierpont. It's okay. It'll all be okay... eventually..."


[chapter l.]