Dream Walker

You discover you can walk through other people's dreams — until you get trapped in a nightmare world and must find your way back to reality.

You are a fifth grader who has always had the wildest dreams of anyone you know. While your best friend Mia dreams about normal stuff like flying or showing up to school in pajamas, your dreams are so vivid and detailed that you started keeping a dream journal in second grade. You have filled four notebooks so far. Your older brother Jake thinks it is weird, but your mom says you have a powerful imagination.

'It is not weird, Jake,' you said at breakfast last week, jabbing a spoon at him. 'It is a gift.' 'It is weird,' Jake said back, mouth full of cereal. 'A gift CAN be weird.'

Lately you have noticed something strange. Right before you fall asleep, your fingertips tingle, like tiny sparks dancing under your skin. Tonight, lying in bed on a quiet Tuesday, the tingling is stronger than ever. 'Whoa,' you whisper, staring at your hands in the dark. 'What ARE you doing?' Then sleep takes you, and instead of the usual dreamscapes you find yourself in a long hallway made of soft, glowing clouds. Doors stretch in both directions, and one of them has Mia's name written above it in shimmering pink letters. You hear distant laughter from beyond it, and the sweet smell of sugar -- the kind of place only Mia would dream up. A candy forest. 'No way,' you breathe. 'No WAY.'