His mother then called out loudly, “Leave the bedroom door open, please, Finn.”

“I will!” Finn called back.

He gave Amanda his chair in front of the screen. He sat on a wooden chest that he dragged from his closet. It contained an old model train set.

“Five minutes to seven,” Amanda said, checking her watch.

Finn entered the Virtual Magic Kingdom Web site. He logged on, selected GUEST ROOMS from the map of the Magic Kingdom, and then the option of picking a room from an alphabetical list. He located FINN’S ROOM and double-clicked.

The screen went black. Some music played. His room appeared.

It was a stone room, as if they were in a dungeon or castle. Using credit he’d earned by winning challenges on the site, he’d furnished the room with a pair of lime-green couches, two chairs, a soda machine, and three posters on the walls.

“What’s with the color of those couches?” Amanda asked.

“What? I like them.”

“Trust me, you’re color-blind.”

Finn’s character was an illustrated boy who wore brightly colored jams and a light-blue T-shirt.

Finn used the mouse to move his character across the screen, get a soda from the machine, and return to one of the two chairs. The smal figure sat down and waited, occasionally raising his arm, under Finn’s direction, to lift the can to his face.

“This is wild,” Amanda said.

“Have you never seen VMK?” he asked. “Everyone at school’s on here twenty-four seven.”

A few minutes after seven, a second figure, a girl, appeared in the room. She wore hip huggers and a lemon-yellow top that showed her stomach.

A dialogue bubble appeared above her.

Angelface 13, it read.

Cool room appeared inside the bubble.

Finn: Thnx, said the bubble above the boy in the chair. Grab a soda.

The girl character bought herself a drink and took a seat on the couch near Finn.

Angelface 13: U got any tunes?

Finn: Yeah, but we’re going 2 chat. Let’s hang.

Others coming soon.

“It’s Charlene,” Amanda said out loud. “I can tell by the way she dresses.”

“Yeah,” Finn said, agreeing.

Willa and Philby’s characters appeared almost simultaneously. Philby, with red hair. Willa, dressed like a hippie. They too got drinks and gathered by the others, both standing. Philby (philitup) complimented Finn on his choice of posters, clearly impressed that Finn had earned enough credits—“creds”—to purchase them. Willa chatted with Charlene about some new clothes that she’d found in one of the merchandise stores.

“This is a really weird thing to say,” Amanda said, “but I feel like I’m in the room, not just watching.”

“I know,” Finn said. “It’s highly addictive.” He added, “I’d make you a character, but for now I’m not sure the others should know you’re listening.”

“No, no! I agree. I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to be seen as a problem.”

“You’re not a problem!” Finn said, thinking he should go ahead and register a character for her. “Far from it. Without you, this meeting wouldn’t be happening.”

Dilltoast showed up in the room and asked, What’s up?

“That’s my friend, Dillard.”

“We met,” Amanda said.

Finn’s character stood and led Dillard’s into the far corner of the room to talk to him. Finn explained to Amanda, “You have to be near each other to talk. It’s called proximity, for obvious reasons. Dill and I can talk over here, and the others won’t see it and…”

His explanation was made clear as Charlene and Willa continued talking, presumably about clothes, but the dialogue in their bubbles was replaced with exclamation points, dollar signs, and ampersands—unreadable gibberish.

Finn tried to politely ask Dillard to go away. Dillard didn’t get the idea at first and forced Finn to get a little blunt once Maybeck arrived. “That didn’t go so hot,” he told Amanda as Dillard’s character left the room.

“Tell him about it tomorrow in person. If you make it into something secret, that you’re sharing, he won’t even remember this.”

“Good with people are you?” Finn thought about this: she was good with people. For one thing, she’d survived his dad at the dinner table.

Maybeck passed on the offer of a drink. He’d given his character a sizable Afro, blue jeans, and a white T-shirt. Somehow it made him look taller than the others, which he was in person as well.

Mybest: Let’s do this. I got homework.

Finn: Okay. We’re all here.

Each of the others said hello. Then Finn continued.

Finn: we’ve all had basically the same “dream”

or we wouldn’t be here. Maybeck and I both felt

kinda sick, like fainting, earlier today, anybody else?

The dialogue bubble above Willa’s character started “talking.”

willatree: yes. I felt awful, but only for a few minutes.

angelface 13: me too

philitup: yup

Mybest: so what’s with that?

Finn: they aren’t dreams, charlene and philby and I were all in the park last night. I got burned on the arm. when I woke up, I had the same burn on the same arm. it’s for real. It wasn’t a dream.

Maybeck’s character moved around the room but stayed close enough to chat. Willa got up off the couch and moved over next to Charlene. No writing appeared above any of the characters.

Amanda said, “I think you freaked them out.”

Finn complained, “What was I supposed to do?”

angelface 13: I saw him get burned. It’s for real.

philitup: what’s weird is that over there we look like our DHIs, but Finn getting burned means we must be part

Finn: human. Part DHI, part human. That’s what Wayne, the old guy, said we were.

Mybest: does anyone hear how completely stupid this sounds?

philitup: we all got sick at basically the same moment. That may sound stupid, but it felt awful.

Mybest: so what we do?

Amanda, looking on, said, “Now, Finn. You’ve got to tell them now.”

Finn: if we all go to bed—to sleep—at the same time tonight, maybe we’ll arrive there together.

Mybest: tell me you’re kidding?

Finn: That’s the way it works, I’m sure of it. Wayne wants us all there at the same time.

Finn felt a rush of heat: all five of them had crossed over at various times. They all shared this same experience. His fingers hovered above the keyboard.

Finn: the only way we’re gonna know what’s up is to go to bed at the same time and hope we wake up over there 2gether. tonight. K?

One by one, the characters answered.

willatree: I’ll be there.

angelface 13: I’m having trouble falling asleep, but I’ll try.

philitup: I’m there.

Mybest: word.

Finn’s character stood up from the couch. He went to the corner and dropped the can into an open box—his makeshift trash can. Charlene followed his lead and did the same.

Mybest: we all play VMK, right? What if that’s got something to do with it?

He had a point, Finn thought. The game had an otherworldly quality.

Finn: we’ve got to talk to Wayne. How about 9:00 tonight?

Each of the characters agreed to the time, a text bubble appearing above their heads. Then, one by one, they checked out. Finn’s character stood alone in the empty room.

“You look kinda lonely just standing there,” Amanda said.

“I think I’m afraid,” Finn admitted. He couldn’t believe he’d said that aloud.

“I bet they all are too,” Amanda said. “Remember that fear is a human emotion. A DHI wouldn’t feel fear.”

The way she said it, so calm, and like she knew what she was talking about—really knew it—