Reverie

by Ryan La Sala

the memory of a dream you know will break apart if it sees you coming.

What’s scarier to the world of men than a woman limited only by her imagination?”

like the brittle husk left behind by a cicada.

This author references cicadas a LOT. I can’t tell if it’s a thematic/metaphorical choice or simply because the author grew up in an area with lots of cicadas and it’s just something they know really well

questions that were plain on Kane’s face.

Or Dr Poesy can read minds...

Aside from appearing to be close friends, Kane had no idea why she had answered Maxine’s phone so early in the morning,

My guess is they were “close friends” (a couple of galpals) and she answers the phone because she lives there.

I very much understand why.”

The power comes from the part of them they hate the most. Helena is someone with the power to create a reverie. Perhaps she is gay after all, and has never outwardly accepted it—it’s a part of herself she hates and/or keeps secret.

Or was “friend” just a lie the world told about two elderly women who chose to live together,

wasn’t her violence used to dismantle something far more dangerous and malicious than herself?

If she gets her hands on the Crown Loom, her power will be unmatched and that, coupled with her sociopathic tendencies, she’ll be the most dangerous thing in any reality.

Alzheimer’s.

Ah. So this is why Adeline has the power of memory. The ability to take away a person’s memory is a twisted version of this hereditary illness she’s probably terrified of getting.

dreams can be the artifacts we excavate to discover who we really are.