A very young Peter -- and damn, did they do a good job of casting a kid with Josh Jackson's round face -- sleeps in his bed. He looks about eight, the age when his nightmares stopped. And maybe some other stuff happened. Suddenly his eyes pop open. He looks around at what is clearly the room of a grade-school science nerd. There's a model plane, some chemistry toys, and a poster on the wall of a Space Shuttle mission dated June 28, 1984, which may or may not be significant, but in our world that was two days after a planned Discovery flight was scrubbed. Oh, how I cried. In more immediate news, Peter sees a reflection of a younger version of Walter in the bureau mirror, so shadowy as to be almost unrecognizable. The planets of a model solar system hover around his head. Young Peter asks, "Dad? What's wrong?" The shadow-Walter lifts his head as though to answer, and suddenly something grabs young Peter and yanks him out of the side of the frame, screaming.

Peter wakes up in the apartment, seeing his dad sitting there watching him sleep. Just like in the dream, although actually there and not in a reflection. It's made slightly less creepy by the fact that this is in the living room rather than in the privacy of Peter's bedroom. He asks Walter what's up. "Nothing," Walter says. "You were talking in your sleep." Peter sits up, describing the dream. "I was a kid, In my room. You were there." "And the rest?" Walter asks. "You don't remember it?" Peter just sleepily says, "Hmm-mmm." Walter looks worried that it's only a matter of time before he does. And when that happens, maybe he should be in a different room.

M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.

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