"So-- sorry, I know this is a weird thing to ask, but I'm one of the people looking into the Roby case and I thought I'd follow up on what you said about Parker?"

"Sure."

Wow that is so much less informative than anyone else she's ever talked to. "You said there was a whistling noise, when you talked to Mr. Latz; I don't suppose you remember that sound more specifically?"

"I... guess? It was high and very hard on the ears."

"Sort of like--" and she has a description in Cat, which has very specific vocabulary for describing sounds; she does her best to translate that description into English.

"...yes. Yes. That's it exactly."

Well That Has Implications And She Does Not Like Them.

The Dreamlands hypothesis is looking less and less likely every time she finds out more information but. "And... you said it had affected your dreams?"

"I have nightmares about it."

"--fair enough. Do you by any chance have other weird dreams?"

"Not anymore."

Stop patternmatching stop patternmatching. "Did something happen, do you know?"

"I grew up. I-- lost it. I got jaded, I started paying attention to stupid human bullshit, who likes who and climbing the social ladder and--"

That can happen??? ....what is she saying. Of course that can happen. Almost all children, and so few adults... "I'm so sorry."

"And now they're just. Normal dreams. --No one listens."

She's not bothering at all to keep the horror that this happens to people off of her face. "If I said the word Dreamlands, does that mean anything to you--"

"Yes. Have you-- do you--"

"Every night for as long as I can remember," she says. "I half grew up in them. Sometimes I think I was raised as much by the cats in Ulthar as by my parents."

"Ulthar," he says quietly. "I'd almost forgotten the name--"

"I've loved the stars since before I knew why. I grew up in Bombay, I couldn't see them, I just-- wanted to, and knew that I loved them, or would love them if I did see them--"

"Do you remember it-- have you spoken to King Kuranes, can you--"

"I-- don't think I know a King Kuranes, it's a big place and I haven't seen much of it and for a bunch of years my Dreamlands-self was just trying to figure out how to get my waking-self to realize it was real at all--"

"Oh. I miss him, and I can't-- I think he's a tramp, somewhere, in the waking world--"

"I'm sorry. I don't know. I can maybe try to ask around but I don't really expect to get a helpful answer."

"How did you-- manage to stay." He sounds heartbroken. There is nothing at all he wants more than to stay.

"I-- I didn't realize people didn't? Or, I mean, I knew people stopped, there are so many more children and nemos than adults, but-- I think I maybe don't make the same distinction as you? The Dreamlands are part of the world, and I love the world, it's not different, to me, to love the Dreamlands, than it is to love the stars, or to love math, or to love cities or mountains or trees or the sea or any of the rest. And the world is enormous and beautiful and infinite and unfathomable and I don't think I could be jaded about any of it if I tried."