28 The Stone of reality
Karla opened her eyes. She could have sworn that she heard Tom say something, but there he was, sawing logs in the bed next to her. She still heard his voice just a little, muttering in the distance, but under her skin at the same time. She could understand just enough of what he said to realize that it was stream of consciousness stuff. Hence it fit well with the sleeping state that he was obviously in right now.
She decided to try an experiment. Mentally, she thought “Wake up!” But she made sure that she didn’t make any physical sounds. It worked like magic. Tom popped one eye open and looked at her as though she might have lost her mind.
“Did you say something, Karla? He asked. “I was busy sleeping.”
Karla looked over at the alarm clock and discovered that it
