Gossamer

The elderly woman sleeps and dreams of earlier, happier times in her life. On some nights, she’s awakened by the creaking of her old house or by bats and mice getting into her room. She considers getting a cat, but she is content with her dog, who “made her take walks and gave her someone to talk to” (7). The woman’s dog and her dreams are her only companions. The dream-givers visit her bedroom every night, but they never disturb her slumber.

Littlest One and Fastidious return to the Heap, which is the place where the dream-givers gather. Littlest One curls up in a corner and falls fast asleep. Meanwhile, her teacher complains to the rest of the older dream-givers about her student’s curiosity and playfulness, bemoaning that Littlest One asks many questions, dances, and invents tongue twisters. Fastidious tells Most Ancient, “[w]e started her too soon” (9). Most Ancient is a bit worried about how Littlest One will manage the most difficult part of a dream-giver’s job, which is called the bestowal. However, he is fond of Littlest One and reminds Fastidious that most of them were curious when they were young. Thin Elderly offers to trade houses with Fastidious and become Littlest One’s teacher. Thin Elderly’s current house has no stairs and is decorated in a minimalist style that he finds dull but appeals to Fastidious. This will be Thin Elderly’s first time supervising a trainee. With the exchange made, the dream-givers cuddle up and sleep because they are exhausted from a night of hard work. Most Ancient wishes them all sweet dreams, which is “his favorite joke” (12).

The Heap is only one small example of the countless colonies of dream-givers, which can be found among every human population. Dream-givers gather humans’ memories by touching objects. Then they carefully combine these details to create dreams. The act of inserting a dream into the mind of a slumbering human or pet is called bestowal and requires “absolute precision.” Littlest One’s training with Fastidious hasn’t covered bestowal. Instead, she’s studied simpler tasks, such as gathering material for dreams and dissolving into invisibility. Dissolving requires dream-givers to concentrate on their wispy forms, which is tricky for the inquisitive and distractible youngling. One day, Fastidious demonstrated how to become invisible, and Littlest One was so impressed that she exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness!” (14). The irritated teacher scolded her and told her never to call attention to someone who’s dissolved because the whole point of dissolving is to ensure that humans do not see dream-givers or learn of their existence. Fastidious often developed headaches during her training sessions with Littlest One, which makes it fortunate for both parties that Thin Elderly has become her teacher.

In the morning, the elderly woman wills her stiff joints into motion and gets out of bed. She feeds her dog, Toby, and prepares a simple breakfast of tea and buttered toast for herself. Toby curls up in a patch of sunlight near the woman’s feet and wags his tail when she says that they will have lovely weather for their walk. Each morning, they take a short square path around the neighborhood because this is the most exercise she can manage. They often stop to rest in a park because the woman likes to listen to the birds and to watch parents and their young children play together. She continues to talk to Toby even after he falls asleep because she has no one else to talk to, having “outlived many of her friends, as well as several earlier dogs” (18). The elderly woman has grown accustomed to her loneliness, but she worries that “her existence was about to change” due to a letter she recently received (19). It is later revealed that this letter contains details about her fostering John.

Littlest One asks Thin Elderly about the whereabouts of Rotund, a dream-giver who used to be Thin Elderly's friend. He answers, “[h]e turned menacing [...]. We’ll say no more about it. He is gone” (20). Littlest One wonders why some dream-givers leave the community and go somewhere frightening. Thin Elderly explains that the reason remains a mystery, but some dream-givers suspect that it has to do with the way they gather memories. He has Littlest One demonstrate the gentle way she gathers fragments of memories and praises the fact that she has “a gossamer touch” (23). Thin Elderly explains that pressing on objects and touching them too deeply is called delving. Dream-givers are susceptible to delving if they like a memory too much, and this can leave them vulnerable to the menacing underside of the object’s memories. He urges her never to repeat what he is about to tell her in the Heap and then explains that dream-givers who fall to the dark side transform into equine creatures called Sinisteeds which inflict nightmares. The elderly woman is due for a dream, but Thin Elderly hasn’t had the opportunity to gather any fragments in her house yet. Littlest One has collected fragments of a party and a kiss, and Thin Elderly decides to teach his student how to bestow a short and pleasant dream.

The woman sleeps restlessly because she is worried about the letter that she received the day before. When she stirs, Littlest One and Thin Elderly hastily dissolve into invisibility. Once the human is asleep again, Thin Elderly demonstrates how to bestow a dream. He flutters up near Toby’s head, hovers in place, centers himself, pulls up the fragments he wishes to use, aims, and sends the dream up Toby’s nose in a trail of tiny sparks. Thin Elderly explains that pulling up the memories requires careful focus, but the fragments will burst forth and go to the sleeper spontaneously. Littlest One likens this bursting to a sneeze, and her teacher deems the comparison accurate albeit a bit crude. She carefully follows Thin Elderly’s instructions and bestows her very first dream. The woman dreams of the young soldier who kissed her when she was a girl and awakens with “a vague feeling of happiness” (31).