She found the comic book today. It had gotten lost in the mess of papers that always collected around her desk, a little red box with a card that said 'Happy Birthday, Emily' with a messy sketch. Emily had been a dream, perhaps. Sometimes you get this same hollow feeling after you wake from a good dream. But this anchored it to reality, an avatar of the had-beens and could-have-loveds. She'd meant to send it off last September, hadn't she? But they hadn't talked after the incident, and she'd lost it. She fingered the plastic wrap, wondering what anime it was. It was untranslated, and all she could remember was that it was Emily's favorite. She sat in the sea of papers, staring at the unfamiliar happy faces on the background of a pink heart. Saccharine, really. What was she supposed to do with this now? She was stuck with a childish romance comic that she didn't know and couldn't read, all because of an old dream. She slit the plastic wrap and flipped through the fragile pages. She smiled, then laughed, and didn't stop to wonder why the pages were getting wet.