Maybe that's why she can let herself do this, too. She doesn't feel the strange mix of feelings she'd feel if she were treating him entirely as a human. In fact, she even lets him stay there. She's definitely not thinking about this as laying a boy's head in her lap.

Maybe the dream is just giving her an excuse to have the closeness she always wanted with the people around her, when she was never comfortable with how to manage it.

Summer's heat is just starting to fade in her waking life, and she finds the dream weather quite pleasant in its turn, just cooled enough to appreciate the touch of the fur and warm body.

"What is it like, being that way?" she wonders aloud. "Do your thoughts still stay busy?"