"Again?" The boy woke with a start.

Jenny, driving, looked over at him. "What?"

"I'm here again. In this dream again."

Jenny looked back at the road. "You're awake, doofus."

The boy looked at his young hands and body. "Yeah, this must be real. But how?"

"You won free movies from the drive in? I get to watch you pick your nose while watching them?"

"Not that," He said, "Being back in Two Thousand One."

"Been Two Thousand One all year," Jenny sighed, "Gonna stay that way till New Year's at least."

The boy asked, "It this the one where we watched 'Shrek' and 'A Knight's Tale'?"

"They were way better than Josie and Freddy."

The boy continued absentmindedly, "I keep coming back here. I wonder why."

"And I keep being the one to bring you to these," Jenny said with growing annoyance. "I wonder why."

"I think this is real," he told her.

"I'm trying to be patient with you but you're making it hard."

"I know it seems strange to you," The boy stopped for a beat, "Trying to think of what to say here."

"How about nothing, just go back to sleep."

He continued, "I kinda AM asleep. At least I think so.

Jenny angrily pulled the car over at a bus stop, threw it into park, and stormed around to his side. She hauled him out bodily and dragged him to the bench and pushed him onto it. She left both car doors open.

She confronted him. "Ok, let it out," she said. "If you let it out maybe all the weirdness will just float away or something."

The boy took a beat to think, but Jenny wasn't waiting. "Spit it out!"

He took a breath. "I think I'm traveling in time somehow."

Jenny stared at him, flat and cold. "No more Sci Fi channel for you."

"I know how it sounds, but it's real."

Jenny shook her head. "No way. Impossible. I'm no geek and even I know that."

He tried again. "I'm not moving physically, I'm...well...revisiting myself at an earlier age."

She shook her head again. "Still sounds impossible."

He continued. "The first time was the night before I graduated. The second time was my first night in the college dorm."

Jenny looked down and covered her face. "You're freaking me out. This can't be real."

"I don't sound like my kid self, do I?"

"No," she admitted, looking back up.

"I don't know why or how it's happening," he said. "I just know it's real."

She started walking, fast, around the car. "It's not real. It's a joke. You're trying to punk me."

The boy followed her. "How do I convince you it's real?"

Jenny climbed back into the driver's seat. "I don't want to be convinced it's real, I want it to stop." She pointed at the passenger seat for him to get in.

The boy approached the driver's side instead. "The next movies were 'Evolution' and 'Swordfish'.

Jenny said back. "Doesn't mean anything, we saw trailers for both."

The boy furrowed his brow in thought. "Hang on, I'm trying to remember if anything happens this week that's memorable."

Jenny pointed sharply at the passenger seat again. "Just get in and go back to sleep. I don't care anyway."

"I remember!" He said. "A big storm hits Houston. Not as big as Katrina, but a big one."

Jenny kept pointing at the passenger seat. "I'm not listening."

His eyes lit as he remembered. "Alison! Tropical Storm Alison!"

"So? What does it prove?"

"When I come again," he said, "you'll know it's real, too."

Jenny burst into tears. "I don't want it to be real! Don't you get it?"

"But Jenny-"

"I want my Booger Machine! He's weird and he's gross, but he's mine!" Jenny sobbed. "Give him back to me!"

"I'm still Booger Machine," he said gently, walking around the car and climbing back into the passenger seat beside her. "Older, maybe a little less booger-ee. But still me." Then, with a long yawn: "I'm waking up in the future." He fell asleep. Jenny stared straight ahead, tears still standing in her eyes.

He surfaced again, briefly and blearily, "Are we home yet.?

"Not yet," Jenny told him. "Go back to sleep. Rest your head in my lap.

The boy did, and looked up at her, "Why are you crying?"

"It's nothing," she said. "Nothing at all."