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feel better" Socks sniffles "I knew I shouldn't have had that last carrot at breakfast"

"You look great, Socks," I insist "Honestly" But he tosses his mane and sulks back toward the other side of the beach

Frump rolls onto his back "If I have to listen to that stupid horse whine one more time--"

"That's exactly what I' about," I interrupt "What if you didn't have to? What if you could be anywhere--anything--you wanted to be?"

I have this drea down a street I've never seen before, in a village I can't identify A girl hurries past , and in her haste she crashes into nite between us Her eyes are the color of honey, and I cannot turn away from them Finally, I say, and when I kiss her, she tastes oflike Seraphima--

"Yeah, right," Fru me "How many career opportunities are there for a basset hound?"

"You're only a dog because you ritten that way," I say "What if you could change that?"

He laughs "Change it Change the story Yeah, that's a good one, Ollie While you're at it, why don't you turn the ocean into grape juice and make the mermaids fly?"

Maybe he's right, maybe it is just me Everyone else in this book seems to be perfectly happy with the fact that they are part of a story; that they are enslaved into doing and saying the saets performed for eternity They probably think that the people in the Otherworld have the sauess I find it hard to believe that readers get up at the sa and eat the sao sit in the same chair for hours and have the sao to bed and wake up and do it all over again I think more likely they lead the most incredible lives--and by incredible, I mean: with free will I wonder all the ti yet not beg the queen to lettrapped by fairies and run ragged by a villain To fall in love with a girl whose eyes are the color of honey To see sonize, and whose na a butcher instead of a prince Or swiendary athlete Or picking a fight with so other than the sauess I just have to believe there's es Or maybe it's just that I desperately want to believe that

I glance around at the others Between readings, our real personalities show One of the trolls is working out a melody on a flute he has carved fro crossword puzzles that Captain Crabbe creates for the into the wizard's crystal ball And Seraphima

She blows me a kiss, and I force a smile

She's pretty, I suppose, with her silver hair and eyes the color of violets in the er than her IQ For example, she honestly believes that just because I save her over and over again as part of s for her

I'll be honest, it's not a hard day's work to kiss a beautiful girl repeatedly But it all starts feeling same old, same old after a while I certainly don't love Seraphima, but that little detail seeuilty every time I kiss her, because I know she wants ive her when the storybook's closed

Beside , uilty kissing Seraphi as I can remember, and thatirl he's crazy about, day after day? "I'm sorry, buddy," I say to him "I wish she kneas just for show"

"Not your fault," he replies tightly "Just doing what you have to do"

As if he's conjured it, there is suddenly a blinding light, and our sky cracks open along a seam "Places!" Frump cries, frantic "Everyone! Into your positions!" He runs off to help the trolls disain

I grab er The pixies ere our chess pieces rise like sparks and write the words SEE YOU LATER in the air before ht as they zooain," I say politely, intent on hurrying to the castle for my first scene

What would happen, I wonder, if I was late? If I dawdled or stopped to sate, so that I wasn't in place when the book was opened? Would it stay sealed shut? Or would the story start without me?

Experion the front of es They rustle as I leap through the in double ti in his stall at the royal stables, and the splash of the mermaids as they dive back into the sea, and suddenly, I a where I am supposed to be, before the royal throne in the Great Hall, at dispute court "It's about time," Frump ht that opens above us, and instead of looking away like we usually do, this tilance up

I can see the Reader's face--a little fuzzy at the edges, sort of how the sun looks from the ocean floor And just like when one stares at the sun, I can't make myself turn away

"Oliver!" Frump hisses "Focus!"

So I turn away from those eyes, the exact color of honey; from that ht be about to speak my name I turn away, and clear my throat, and for the hundred billionth time in my life, I speak my first line of the story

Save who?

I did not write the lines I speak, they were given tobefore I remember I mouth the words, but the actual sound is in the Reader'sfrom my throat Si a play soination It is as if the action and sound on our tiny, rehts of the Reader I'm not sure that I ever really learned this infor I've known forever, the sarass and associate it with a color, I know that color is green

I let Rapscullio convince hter has been kidnapped-- a speech I've heard so often that occasionally, Iwith hihter He's just setting a trap for h I've played this scene a thousand ti on and on about the other princes on't rescue Seraphi us

I've seen her before She's different from our usual Readers--they're either h to be captivated by tales of princesses in peril But this Reader looks--well, she looks to be about e It doesn't make any sense Surely she knows--like I do--that fairy tales are just stories That happy endings aren't real

Frump waddles across the polished black and white orously as he skids to a halt beside me

Suddenly I hear a voice--distant, through a tunnel, but clear enough: "Delilah, I told you twice alreadywe're going to be late!"

Fro They don't usually read out loud, but every now and then, a conversation occurs when a book is open I've learned quite a lot froood listener Like, for exas bite is apparently a coht, even in rooms that do not appear to be infested with insects I've learned about things the Otherworld has that we don't: television (which is so parents do not like asjoy Just the ones that co you take before bedtime that leaves you drenched)