A man in California, McGrath, wakes up to find that there is a large mouth gaping in his torso, right by his ribs. It closes up the second he is fully awake. He feels some force leaving his body through the hole. Before he can start to panic, Victor Kayley's widow calls; she is one of his oldest friends and was once his lover. McGrath and her husband were also deeply close. She cries and tells McGrath how much she misses her husband; she loved to observe the world and tell him about it. McGrath visits the doctor, receives an X-ray, and is told that there is nothing wrong with his body and that he needs to see a counselor. His ex-wife gives him a connection to a dream counseling session headed up by a woman named Anna Picket and patrolled by many dull middle-aged women. McGrath tells the group about a theory that people dream to filter out useless memories. After the rest of the women have all left, Anna comes up to McGrath and touches his head, then appears to go into some kind of shock. He feels as though a certain power is leaving his body and entering into her. She appears to go unconscious, but then her fingers begin to flex.