Chimere smiles and instructs him to sit on a branch opposite me. When he does, the branch bows under his weight. We’re probably the same height but he likely has fifty pounds on me. “This is Griffin Colburn, your replacement,” she says to me. “Griffin, please meet Eron, who will be your instructor.”

“How do you do?” I say, extending my hand. He grabs hold of it, crushing it between both of his, and gives it a shake that very nearly makes the whole tree vibrate.

“What’s up?” he says, his tone brusque.

Chimere giggles. “I’m sure you two will get along splendidly. This is Eron’s first time as a teacher but he is excellent at what he does.”

I smile at her, basking in the compliment, only to notice that my replacement doesn’t seem to be listening; he’s focusing on his wrist, fiddling with his cuff link. He appears confused by it.

I try to envision this fellow holding Julia’s hand, or simply standing beside her, but after a moment, I realize it’s not possible. A few additional moments of silence pass, wherein Chimere and I study our newest recruit and then exchange a raised eyebrow or two. Finally, he gives up on his sleeve and nods, looking bored. “Cool.”

Chimere clasps her hands together. “Well, then. I’ll leave you to it.” She gives Mr. Colburn a motherly pat on the arm. “Good luck. Please let me know if you need anything.”

Approximately thirty seconds after Chimere disappears into the dusk, the uncomfortable silence ensues.

Luckily, he breaks it, by saying something to which I don’t know how to respond. “Wow,” he breathes. “Chimere is hot. Are all the girls here like that?”

He mispronounces her name, calls her something closer to “Chimney.” I spend a few moments thinking about how to phrase my response. “She is not a girl.”

“Well, I know. Whatever she is, she’s smokin’. Are they all like that?”

Cool? Hot? Smoking? What are all these references to temperature? Baffled, I venture that he is stunned by Chimere’s beauty, like I was when I first met her. “I don’t know; I’ve never considered any others of our kind. This work is quite solitary.”

He cocks his head. “For real?”

I nod and motion toward the window. It’s dark. Julia has not yet returned home. “Chimere”—I pronounce her name carefully, Chi-meer, so that he’ll get it right—“told me that you are Julia’s beloved, yes?”

His eyes widen and then he dissolves into laughter.

Ah, perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. It didn’t seem possible. I relax. “You are not?”

He runs his beefy hands through his hair and shakes his head. “You people are, like, totally unreal. The way you talk. It’s just … priceless.”

There’s heat under my collar; this conversation is already proving tiresome. “How do you mean?”

“You sound like one of those old movies. Or my great-grandfather.” He stops laughing when he sees the confusion on my face. “Sorry. It’s been a really crazy few days.”

I nod. I vaguely remember my first days as a Sandman, when everything was new. Things were odd, I suppose. Truthfully, though, I fit into this world rather easily—almost too easily. Chimere said I was a natural. Perhaps it was because I didn’t fit so perfectly into the human world. I’ve always spoken and acted differently than humans, even when I was one.

“So yes,” he finally answers, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “I am Julia’s ‘beloved.’”

“Oh,” I say, perhaps a bit more dejectedly than I’d planned. I motion to Julia’s home. “So this must be familiar to you.”

He shrugs. “The house, not the room. I’ve been to the house a couple of times.” He moves closer to the window and strains to peer inside. “Julia wasn’t the most … physical of girls, if you know what I mean.”

I nod knowingly. Julia always seemed like a girl of great virtue.

He squints. “What year did you go toes up, again?”

“Nineteen ten,” I answer.

“Holy mother, are you old. Back then girls got it on a lot earlier, didn’t they? Wasn’t the average life expectancy, like, thirty?”

I shake my head. He’s making fun of me. I decide to change the subject. “Perhaps we should begin the training now. I have a lot to teach you.”

“Okay, yeah. When do I get to do Julia?”

The words stick on my tongue like glue. “Do Julia?”

He leans forward, excited. “Yeah. Like, whatever. Seduce her.” He makes an odd gesture with both hands, as if he’s squeezing produce.

“Not tonight. I think it’s best I teach you some fundamental rules before we get into that. You’ll need practice before you actually carry out the seduction.”

He blows a tuft of hair out of his eyes. “I know the rules. Chimere told me the basics. I want to get on with the show.”

I draw in a breath and let it out slowly, then calmly say, “Mr. Colburn, I am sure that Chimere told you that if you’re not fully capable of assuming my position, I will not be able to leave mine once my hundred years have expired. That means you have to be fully versed in everything we do, even if it requires hearing the same thing more than once. The curriculum has been established over the course of thousands of years and it’s not my place to change it. I am sure you understand.”

His mouth becomes a straight line and he crosses his arms in front of his chest. He doesn’t understand, but at least he doesn’t object.

“All right,” I begin, “the most important rules to know are these. One: You are only in the humans’ world to soothe them to sleep. You can offer certain protections, which I will explain in time, but they are limited. You must never put your own needs or desires ahead of those of your charges. Once they are resting comfortably, you must exit their locale. Is that clear?”

It appears his eyes have glazed over, but before I can wave a hand in front of his face, he nods. “Chimere told me this already,” he mutters. “But fine, I get it. Just following the curriculum. It’s your breath, not mine.”

“It bears repeating,” I return.

He nods. “Get them to sleep, and get out. Got it. Next?”

The days of training this boy seem to stretch out before me like a long, winding path. Perhaps this is the type of young man whom a young woman of today would be eager to call her beloved, but I can’t imagine that dear, sweet Julia would lose her heart to him. If so, I am lost.

“Did Chimere teach you how to enter their bedrooms?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No. How?”

I’m relieved when he leans forward, finally appearing interested in what I have to say. “You are completely invisible to humans. You are also able to pass quietly into their rooms without having to open windows, move furniture … All you must do is simply think you want to go through something, and you will.”

“So we’re like … ghosts?” he asks, turning toward Julia’s window. The moonlight faithfully reflects our images. I look insignificant and mouselike next to his broad frame. “Phantasmic.”

“Not at all. We don’t haunt people. We help them,” I say. I wonder if I will need to repeat everything more than twice. “And then we take our leave.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I told you, I get it, I get it. But you never just … I dunno. Peek in their underwear drawers?”

I give him a severe glance. “Surely not. You’re not to disrupt their habitat in the least.”

He laughs. “Okay, okay. I was kidding. What else?”

I take a breath. The next rule, I know, is going to be the hardest one for someone like this boy to comprehend. I can already tell that he is the type who isn’t used to walking into a room unnoticed. This is a dangerous quality for a Sandman to possess, and though they all eventually learn their purpose, it’s never without its struggles.

“The next rule is: You are not alive anymore. You are not one of them. The sooner you realize that, the easier this is going to be.”

CHAPTER 5