Fay forgot Belle. She forgot Gilbert. She forgot her preoccupation with Enlai. She was determined to forget everything about her little world.
If you had asked her, she would have said that her interest in Fred rooted her more and more firmly in ordinary reality, and that she had begun to wonder if reality was so very ordinary after all. But no-one asked. Still, the answer was there, just in case. Fay was very determined to forget.
Fay decided she was in love. That nightmares were just nightmares. That her life was happening in the real world. These decisions were a huge relief. She ran into love, her arms outspread. She was ready to embrace daily life. The headaches faded. She refused to think of Belle, or Persa, or Gilbert, or Enlai-who-didn’t-exist. It was a conscious and careful refu
