"I was. It was just a doll, though. Like a baby, only somebody had carved a face sort of like that one on your stick. Only this was a baby's face, and painted pink. Younger than Bala's baby. You couldn't even tell if it was a boy or a girl."

I said I doubted that it made any difference.

"I guess not. I took it and carried it like a real baby, and tried to go back to base. The place where I'd counted?"

"I understand. Could you find it?"

"Huh-uh. I looked and looked, only I couldn't find them. You know, the little table, and the chairs the dolls had been in. So finally I sat the doll down in a corner and said you're it. I explained about hiding eyes and counting, and looking for people, and then I ran away and hid. There was this great big long sofa with lots of legs, I don't know how many but eight or ten, maybe, and I got down on my stomach and crawled under it."

"Go on."

"There was a little girl hiding under there already. At first I thought it was the one with yellow hair, but it wasn't."

I nodded and said that I was delighted to hear it.

"Then I thought it was the other one, Mora. Only it wasn't her either."

"Who was it?"

Hide looked troubled, and seemed unable to meet my eyes. "I don't know."

"Was that the end of your dream?"

"Almost. We didn't talk, just pushed up close and held on to each other. We were both scared."

"In a game of hide-and-seek? What were you afraid of?"

"Being found, I guess. I was in front and she was in back against the wall, and I wanted to say if she sees me I'll go out and be it, and they won't know about you. Only I didn't. And pretty soon I could hear the doll, walking slow and looking in all the cabinets. And then I woke up and woke you up."

"To ask what your dream meant."

He nodded. "Yeah."

"But there is something about your dream you aren't telling me. Who was the girl under the sofa?"