Following clocks

"What did you say?" she asks.

"I said, I can't remember my dreams from the night, but the ones I have when I enter the forest are very clear to me," I tell her.

"What do you mean?" Amme says fluttering beside me on the trail.

"It's the strangest thing, but it used to be that I remembered my dreams vividly. I'd wake up and be unable to fall back asleep as I analyzed my dream. Now I sleep through the night without waking to think about them. Then while father and I are walking through the woods those same kind of dreams appear, but I am awake."

"That's not strange at all," she tells me. "You're a dreamer awakening."

"A dreamer awakening? I don't get it."

"Your kind have been tricked for a long time into believing there is a line between the world of magic and the world of technology. It began with clocks, which your ancestors considered the greatest invention. From the moment humans began following time according to machines their world began to accelerate.

"You are one of the lucky ones because your father is also a dreamer awakened. My father tells me that since humans began following clocks, there have been societies of people that did not follow its movement. In some, the people had to keep it a secret because the Corporation did not approve.

"These people are able to walk through both worlds and can see things other humans cannot. As children, most humans are born with the ability to see the world of magic. As they grow older they begin believing more in the line the clock has created and cast aside the world of magic.

"Did you know that it is rare now that you can still see me at your age, but two hundred years ago many adults could? Even fifty years ago children could cross into the world of magic well into their teens."

"Is that why our neighbors can't see you when they are out walking?" I ask.

"Yes. Now children are set in front of a box and told what to think before they can walk or even talk. Each human is supposed to awaken from the dream world, but the Corporation has gained access to the youngest minds.

"You are at the age when most humans choose their path. But so few children are even aware the world of magic still exists they simply follow into the world of technology.

"In doing so they buy into all that the Corporation sells. You on the other hand have not been influenced by the messages they implant in children. You are a dreamer awakened."

"Amme, I'm only eight. Do you think someday I'll forget about this world of magic?"