Atonement

by Ian McEwan

The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.

I wonder how many readers experience 'oblivious' daydreaming. You drift away into an unbidden story. You're hardly aware of what you're doing. When you come back to earth, unless you make the effort of memory, perhaps of writing it down, the little dream is gone. There's no recall.