Lost in the In-Between
an excerpt

Chapter I
Daniel Quinn had always been accustomed to going to sleep in his bed at the same time every night. He was also accustomed to waking up at the same time every morning, just as the first streaming slivers of sunlight crept through his blinds. So, to say he was surprised one morning when he woke somewhere other than his room, would be grossly understated.
He couldn’t remember going anywhere in the night, nor could he remember being woken up by his parents. But, here he was, somewhere other than his room, somewhere he had never seen before, somewhere stranger than the strangest place he had ever seen.
Because he was accustomed to waking up at the same time every morning and because he did remember going to bed at exactly the same time the night before as he normally did, Daniel was sure it should be morning. However, everywhere and everything around him was dark and hazy. It was like he was in his dark bedroom, with the dim light of the streetlamp creeping into his window. The streetlight always gave everything a hazy, haloed effect. But, Daniel was very sure this wasn’t his room and he was very sure that he wasn’t looking at the streetlight outside of his window.
Daniel had always been curious, even more curious than most eleven-year-olds. Waking up somewhere other than his own bedroom should have made him nervous, but it didn’t. He was more eager to find out where he was than he was to find out how he got wherever he was. Ahead of him, the hazy, blurred shapes became lighter. Daniel moved forward, hoping that the light would grow stronger.
With every step, Daniel could hear strange noises in the distance, but he couldn’t quite make out the shapes of anything. Suddenly he heard whistling right behind him. He stopped and swung around, nearly bumping into a large man with a round, bald head with thick mutton-chops and a large round belly to match his head. The man stopped abruptly, his whistling ceased. He seemed startled to see Daniel. But then his face erupted into a comical grin that made Daniel relax instantly.
“Hullo, there.” The mutton-chopped man was still grinning at Daniel. “Where did you come from?”
Daniel’s neck bent completely back, a necessary position to see the grinning man’s face. “I’m not sure where I’ve come from, exactly.” Daniel turned and looked all around him. “I’m not sure how I got here at all.”
“You don’t know where you came from?” The grinning man rubbed his left mutton-chop with his fingertips.
“No, sir, I don’t. I just know that I went to sleep in my own bed last night and when I woke up today, I was here.” Daniel made a sweeping motion with his hand. He saw the grinning man stop rubbing his mutton-chop the instant he heard Daniel say this.
“You went to sleep?” The grinning man stuttered out, though he was no longer grinning. In fact, his face became very rigid and concentrated.
“Well, yes. When I went to sleep last night, I was in my own bed in my own home and now I’ve woken up and I don’t know where I am at all or even how I got here.” Daniel was becoming frustrated. He thought it was weird that he couldn’t get the man to understand that he did go to sleep the night before. Of course people go to sleep every night. At least every person that Daniel had ever met went to sleep every night.
The grinning man, who was no longer grinning, bent down low to look at Daniel straight in the face. Daniel took one step back, but stood up straight, his chin jutted out to show the man that he wasn’t scared. “Do you have a name?” The strange grinning man, who was no longer grinning, asked.
“Of course I have a name. I’m Daniel Quinn, age eleven and a half.” Daniel thrust his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes, what kind of question was that to ask? “Please, can you tell me where I am? I should probably get home before my parents begin to worry about me.” At this, the grinning man started laughing.
“I can tell you where you are.” His laughter continued, his round belly rolling and bouncing with each breath.
“Please, who are you?” Daniel had never met anyone like this strange man. Most adults he had met were very eager to tell him where to go, what to do and where he was and how to behave, even if he already knew or didn’t want to know at all. This man was different. Daniel couldn’t get a straight answer out of him and he didn’t seem to want to tell Daniel anything.
“Not who, dear boy, but what … I’m a bona-fide, pure-blooded dream.” The man laughed harder than he had before, especially when he saw Daniel’s exasperated expression. There’s no way I heard that right, Daniel thought. “And I can tell you exactly where you are, though you may not like it.” The laughter bellowing from Daniel’s companion echoed and pulsated around Daniel, shaking him from the inside out. He stopped long enough to catch his breath and to catch a glimpse of his young companion. When he saw Daniel’s face, he stopped long enough to give Daniel the most ridiculous explanation he had ever heard.
“If you don’t know where you are, and you don’t know where you’ve been, then the word that you are searching for is lost, my fine young friend. And since the where that you are is here and the here is the In-Between, then I feel it safe to declare, you are lost in the In-Between—in the In-Between land of nightmares and dreams.”
Daniel’s mouth dropped wide and for a moment he stopped breathing. He couldn’t tell if he was on the verge of laughing or if he was on the verge of tears. Surely this was all a joke—and not a very good joke at that. Most adults he had met would have told him exactly where he was and would have marched him straight home to his parents. It was never good for kids to be wandering in strange places they didn’t know by themselves.
“What do you mean, I’m in the In-Between?”
“It means exactly what you hear. You are in the In-Between. Or, that’s sort of the name it goes by. It’s sort of a place, but not really a place. You have dreams, right?”
“Yes, I dream nearly every night. And I remember most of them.” Daniel thrust his chest out proudly. He was quite accomplished at remembering his dreams. He knew people who never remembered a single dream they had.
“Good. Well, the In-Between is sort of where those dreams come from.”
“I thought the dreams were inside our minds.”
“What makes you think that? Just because you’re asleep when you dream, doesn’t mean the dreams are in your head. You see them in your head, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are in your head.”
“But, if we’re asleep when we dream and the dreams aren’t in our heads, then how do we see our dreams?” Daniel’s brow twisted over his eyes and his mouth dropped into a concentrated frown.
“Ah, very good question. But, not one that really has an answer. Just like I really can’t tell you what the In-Between is, I can’t really tell you how you see dreams inside your head when you’re asleep. You just have to trust that it’s true.”
“But…”
“Okay, the best description I can give you of the In-Between is this, and I hope it makes sense. Every dream that has every been dreamed and created by a dream-creator like you, lives here. Have you ever thought about what happens to your dreams when you’re awake?”
“No, I guess I just always thought they were in our heads, so they really didn’t go anywhere.”
“Well, that’s not entirely true. The dreams live here and when you’re awake they live their own lives here in the In-Between. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. Okay, the In-Between is a vast expanse that holds every dream that has ever been created since the beginning of time. Every dream since the first dream is here and there is room for every dream that will ever be created.”
“But, where is the In-Between?”
“Ah, well, it’s sort of everywhere and nowhere. You can’t really see it, usually, but it’s always there. It’s as vast as all the universes stretched out together, but it can fit on the end of a pin. It’s as deep as the depth of every ocean put together, but it can be held in your mother’s thimble. Does that make sense?”
“Well, not really.”
“Think of it this way … You know how there are places and things that exist even though you’ve never seen them.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, the In-Between is sort of like that. It exists even though most people never see it or even know that it exists. Yet, everyone has been here and most come here every night. Some remember their visits but most never remember being here at all.”
“Oh, you mean our dreams … our dreams that we remember is our time here in the In-Between?”
“Exactly. Or, sort of. Your dream actually lives here in the In-Between and every night when you fall asleep you visit your dream. Everything that you remember when you wake up in the morning is your dream-memory—the time that you and your dream spent together. You told your dream exactly what you wanted to see and your dream did just as you told it.”
“So, I’m where my dream lives?”
“Yes, to put it simply … you are where all dreams live.”
Daniel spun in a slow circle trying to take everything in. Everything around him was still dark, but the light was growing stronger. There were outlines of things in the distance. Shapes and objects were starting to take shape.
“Please, I’m sorry, but I never got your name.” Daniel stopped suddenly. He’d completely forgotten all the manners his parents had told him about being polite to people he met. Of course, he wasn’t sure if the manner rules applied to meeting dreams, but he thought it better to be safe.
“We dreams, we don’t really have names. We just exist just as we do. But if you must, then please, young sir, you may call me … Walter.”