Kelly groggily picks herself off her couch, digs through the fridge and drinks straight from a milk carton. She returns to the couch and tries to fall asleep again, to push the dream away, to ignore this odd urge she felt building in her.

After about fifteen minutes of shifting around on the couch trying to find a more comfortable position, “Oh fuck it. First waking dreams, then the neighbors accuse me of stealing their cats! What’s next?”

She lets out an irritable sigh, gets up, gets more or less dressed in jeans, a simple t-shirt and black bunny slippers.

She ducks down into the nearest subway, and boards the first tram heading to the park. Once at the right station, she gets out, climbs the stairs back to the surface, and starts searching the park for that set of benches from her dream. A task made a bit more difficult in the middle of the night when you were too stupid to bring a flashlight.

Nice one Kelly, nice… this just gets better and better.

Clarissa bites her lower lip and considers her options. She really ought to get back to be, see if she can try to get a good night’s sleep. On the other hand, she can’t shake the desire to visit the park from her dream. After all, it was the first time in ages that the dream has changed on a night without a night terror.

Finally resolved in her decision, she gets up and dresses in jeans, a pink and black cherry blossom print kimono blouse, and black ballet flats. She makes her way to the park.

Once there pulls out her keyring with the LED flashlight and looks for the bench from her dream. As long as she’s here she may as well take a look.

After searching for about ten minutes, Kelly was nearly ready to give up when she saw a powerful flashlight beam heading her way. McTavish squinted to see who it was… looked like a woman much thinner than herself…

“Uhm… hello officer,” she ventures, “No, I’m not drunk, and no I’m not homeless… I’m just having a walk in the park. Can’t sleep.”

Clarissa stops when she sees the woman from the sleep specialist’s office, Kelly. Now this was odd. Had they both had the same dream again? She takes a few steps closer and angles her light downward to maker her face easier to see.

“I’m not a police officer. I’m Clarissa Hart. I think we met at the doctor’s office this afternoon. I had a dream about the park and felt like I should come look for the park bench in my dream.” She says

“Oh!” Kelly says, visibly relieved, “Thank goodness… I’m glad its you I bumped into.”

Kelly moves in to give Clarissa a friendly hug, but stops in the middle of it, her self-consciousness making her stop. That’s right… we just met… and this isn’t like Europe… Americans wait a bit longer before going for a hug… I think…

Clarissa sees the cue and moves in to hug Kelly. Although she doesn’t usually hug people she doesn’t know, she has always been a touchy-feely sort of person.

“I take it this means we had the same dream again?” She says

Danny stretches and yawns. Great. Another terrible night’s sleep.

The air in his room seems unusually clear … and cool … until he realises that he isn’t in his room at all.

He had dreamt of a park with vines that had thrown themselves over statues and fountains and flowers that turned their faces up to the sun. Now he was awake and he was in the same park, only it was night and the plant life seemed afraid to grow.

Having suffered with somnambulism for several months, he’d learnt to dress appropriately for bed in case he went wandering. Today he is in grey tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt. A look down at his feet reveals a pair of Spongebob slippers. You can’t get everything right all the time.

He looks around the park.

“What a shit hole.”

Although it’s not as it was in his dream, three things are the same. It really is Crescens Park. He feels the nagging sense of loss. And the bench is there too.

He sees two women, one of whom has a torch of some sort. He watches them hug.

“Jesus, no,” Danny mutters, thinking that his sleep-walking was weird enough by itself without having to share his dreams too.

He thinks about hiding, but he notices that a van has pulled up and a guy is unloading what looks like survey equipment.

“Mate,” Danny says under his breath. “You’re about to blow my cover.”

Clarissa looks over when she hears the van pull up and she sees the man from the doctor’s office standing nearby. She walks over to him.

“Did you have the same dream we did ?” she asks motioning toward Kelly. She glances over at the van wondering what surveyors are doing in the park so late at night.

It’s Clarissa. The nurse called her name in the waiting room.

“I dreamt about this place,” Danny admits. “Only it was full of life. I … er … woke up here, because … I …um …”

Even after weeks of therapy, he’s embarrassed about it.

“I sleepwalk. A lot.”

Danny follows Clarissa’s glance and says: “I wonder if that guy’s sleepworking.”

Then he waves to Kelly, like they are one big, happy, crazy family.

“I’m Danny,” he says to them both. “Did either of you dream about that guy with all the equipment, and if so, couldn’t you have given him an assistant? Look at all that stuff!”

“Nice to meet you again, Danny.” Clarissa says. “It is strange that they’re out so late.”

She casually walks over to the group unloading the equipment.

“It seems a little late to survey the park.” She says “Is the city planning renovations? It’s a shame how rundown this place has become.”

“So you’re working late, eh?” says Danny. “That must really play havoc with your sleep. You poor baby … Now that we’ve got that out the way, how about you tell us what’s in the bag? Never mind why we’re here. This is still a public park, right?”