I know I must be dreaming because time moves funny in a dream.

The car floats out of the fog toward a bright light and I'm scared because I can't stop or steer. Then the car hits something and rolls and flips end-for-end and I feel something go through my chest and it hurts a lot but like something that hurt a long time ago.

* * *

I woke up in the back seat of the deputies' car and I didn't know a thing about my dream, at first. I knew I had had a dream but not what it was about but it worried me a little.

But mostly, I felt warm and safe, sort of like when you go somewhere with your parents and stay up late and you get to sleep on the way home. I didn't have to think about what had happened, Deputy Win and her partner Nick would take care of me. Lying in back hearing them talk, it really was like hearing my parents because they argued just like a married couple. Well, I must have had parents sometime.

"We can't answer any codes," Deputy Win said. "We're taking Honey to the clinic."

"I didn't say we were going to answer the code, I just said there was one."

"Well, we can't answer it."

"No. Blondie and Jerrold will get it," said Nick.

"Why do you call Gorman 'Blondie'?"

"It's just a nickname. Not important."

"You guys have a lot of old jokes I don't get. I feel left out."

"Sorry."

"So, why do you all call him 'Blondie'? He's not blond, his hair is more, um, dirt colored."

"Because he has a 'purdy' mouth."

"Sorry I asked."

Nick laughed.

Then Deputy Win said, "Is that a dog?"

The car swerved and Deputy Nick cussed and I heard two thumps under the car.

"We hit a dog!" said Deputy Win.

"I don't think it was a dog," said Nick.

"Well, aren't you going to stop?"

"What for? It's dead."

"It might not be. Turn around and go back."

"I thought we were taking 'Honey" to the county clinic?"

"Nick Jordan, I'm going to write this up in my report. Now you stop and go back or that gets written up to!" I thought that Deputy Win really did sound like someone's m0m just then.

Nick cussed but the car slowed and started to turn. Just as I was about to sit up, even though I didn't want to see a dead dog, the car door at my head opened up and something climbed in over me. Okay, I screamed. The car swerved some more with more cussing and yelling and we came to a stop on the side of the road.

While the car bounced and bumped along the edge of the highway, the dog-like thing that had climbed over me, pushed me onto the floorboards and put a paw or a hand on my face. I stopped screaming because I couldn't make any sound at all!

Deputy Win tried to look over the seat to see where I had gone but she still had on her seatbelt and she and Nick were still yelling at each other. The dog, but I knew it wasn't a dog, sat on the back seat where I had been, calm as could be and Deputy Win didn't seem to notice it.

"The door flew open!" Deputy Win yelled. She'd yelled that before but she yelled it again.

"I know!" Deputy Nick yelled. The car stopped and I heard them open their car doors and get out.

Deputy Win opened the rear door near my head and asked me, "Honey, are you okay?"

I heard my new voice say, "I'm fine. Just a little scared." But I didn't say it, I know my mouth didn't even move. The dog said it! I tried to wave my arms or kick my legs but I couldn't move. I couldn't talk and I couldn't move! I heard 'me' ask, "Can I stay down here on the floor where it's safe and I don't have to look at the dog you ran over."

Nick had opened the door on his side of the car next to my feet. "Uh, sure. Winnie, stay with her and I'll go back and take care of the dog. Why did the door come open? It doesn't open from the inside."

"I dunno," the dog said for me. The deputies couldn't see that it wasn't me talking.

"It'll be okay, Honey," Win told me. "Are you sure you don't want to get up on the seat again?"

"Pretty sure," said the dog in my new voice, if that was really what I sounded like now. It sounded like a girl but almost more like a little kid. I didn't really like the idea that I sounded like that but right at the moment, I couldn't talk at all.

Win checked out the door, "It must not have been closed right. But there's a light on the dashboard to show all the doors and whether they're open or closed."

Nick came back. "Maybe we didn't hit a dog, nothing back there. Maybe it was a roll of cardboard or something."

They talked about the door and the dog they didn't hit. I thought right then that they hadn't hit the dog, it had jumped up and grabbed the car so it could get inside. It must have been one of the peanut butter dishrags making itself look like a dog and it was right in the car with me!

The dog looked at me, he really did look like some sort of scruffy street mutt. I heard a voice in my head, "I'm going to let you move in a moment, when I do, put your tongue against the roof of your mouth and push up twice, then clench your teeth and push up once."

It sounded crazy. I couldn't blink or nod or anything then I could. I did what the dog had told me to do. A feeling went through me as if I'd just had a bite of a big old candy bar.

"Good, now you can talk back to me without moving," said the dog.

"I can?" I said. Again, I couldn't move but I could hear myself speak and the dog seemed to hear me too.

"Yes," said the dog. "Now don't be afraid, I'm here to help you. But one thing we don't want them to do is a lot of tests with x-rays and big machines. They might find out you aren't human."

"I'm not?" I said. I felt like crying but I couldn't seem to do that, either.

"No," said the dog. "You're a life construct, built by the Grashdi to explore this world and collect stuff."

"The Grashdi? What kind of stuff? Are you Token?" I sort of knew about the dream I'd had just then.

The dog said nothing for a moment. "It's a good enough name, I suppose. Better than Scruffy or Puddles."

"Why can't they see you? How come they think I'm talking when you talk?"

"I'm using, uh, lasers to fool them. Sort of painting what I want them to see on the back of their eyes."

"Wow?" I said. "That's kind of cool."

"I can do it for small groups, and yes, it comes in handy."

"Why can't I move?"

"I didn't want you to get scared and tell them about me. We've got to keep what we are secret."

I thought about that. "Why?" I asked.

"Because if your leaders find out we're not human, they might try to take us apart."

Okay, I could believe that. "I won't tell them, then. But where were you when I woke up in the desert?"

"Those dumbass Grashdi called for me, then saw a real coyote arrive and thought it must be me, so they left. Took me some time to find you."

I giggled. The dog, Token, opened his mouth and looked like he was laughing, too.

"I'll let you move again in a minute, I'm using a, uh, stun beam on you. But first I need to tell you some stuff so they won't try to look in your head and find out you're not human."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Your name, where you live. You're Candi Coca and you live in Reno at the Eagle's Rest Hotel."

"I am? I do?" I had a vague idea that Reno was a town in some mountains near a lake.

"Yes," said the dog.

"No one's real name is Candi Coca," I said. "What am I, a stripper?"

"Sometimes. You also work at the Condor Ranch."

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Time for that later," said Token. "But when I let you go, tell these two that you know who you are know. And I'll help you answer any other questions they ask."

"Um, okay," I said. It kind of felt good to have some one to tell me things I didn't know. Still.... "I used to be a guy didn't I?" I said.

"The Grashdi make little Grashdi by weaving loose threads with each other. They don't know human sex from earthworm sex. It's all too weird for them."

"What about you? Aren't you one of them?"

"Nope," said the dog. "I really am grown from Earth lifestuff, mostly dogs. Your body is mostly human, too. Just not all human because of some Grashdi stuff inside you."

"What, like gears?"

"No. Don't worry about it now. You ready to talk to these two?"

"I guess," I said and put a hand up to my face. I could move again!

My body only tingled a bit from the effect of the stun beam as I got up from the floor and traded places with the dog.

I must have made some noise because Deputy Win looked back at me. "You okay, honey?" she asked.

I nodded. "I 'membered some stuff," I said.

She looked worried. "What did you 'member, honey?"

"Honey's not right. My name is Candi Coca," I said. "I live in Reno in a hotel and, um, I'm a, uh, a dancer."

The two cops looked at each other then Deputy Nick asked, "Do you remember how you got out in the desert alone?"

"Well, I don't know if I should tell you," I said. The dog was telling me the details and I kind of stalled for time.

"Why not?" asked Deputy Win.

"Well, you're cops and I don't want to get in trouble," I said.

Deputy Win said, "If you didn't steal something or hurt someone, we won't cause you any more trouble, honey. Candi."

Deputy Nick said, "She looks like Candi, don't she? Ha! I bet they write her name like the Coca Cola logo!"

"Shut up, Nick," said Deputy Win. "Go ahead and tell us."

"Well, these guys said they wanted to take me to, um, L.A. to be in movies with them."

"I think I can guess what kind of movies," said Deputy Win.

"But, um, they stopped at this, uh, farm house, I guess it was. Out in the desert. And they wanted to have sex with me. All of them." My face must have been burning red. I wish the dog had told me this story before I started telling it to the deputies.

Nick tried to look at me but Win told him to keep to his driving. "Then what happened, Candi?"

"They started fighting. It got really scary, so I ran away and they chased me. But it was dark and I fell into sort of a hole. It knocked the air out of me, so I just laid there and tried to be quiet. They didn't find me and I fell asleep under one of those bushes out there. I guess I was so scared that when I woke up, I didn't 'member what happened." I started crying for real. "I mean, I was all alone out in the desert and I was really scared."

"You got any names of these guys?" Nick asked, sounding really mean.

"I think so. But I don't know if they were real names?" I said.

"Wait till we get to the clinic and we'll write it all down," said Winnie. "You poor thing."

That was the second time someone had used that word. I thought I ought to know what it was but somehow I didn't. That sort of scared me too, because it really seemed like something I ought to know.

"Poochie," I whispered in the voice no one else could hear. "If they write it down will it hurt?"

"No," said the dog. "and I thought you were going to call me Token?"

"I like Poochie better," I said. "It's more friendly."

He seemed to think about it for a bit, sitting on the floor of the back of the police car where I had been lying down. "You're right," he said. "Poochie is more friendly." His tail wagged. He didn't look like a coyote now, but more like just some shaggy little dog, like you might see anywhere. I wondered how he could change his look so much and wheter I could learn to do that, too.

I sighed. "I need a friend right now," I said.

I must have said that out loud. Winnie looked back at me and said, "I want to be your friend, Candi. Both of us do, don't we Nick?"

"Oh yeah," said Nick. He glanced back at me and grinned.

I smiled back, feeling a little funny about the way Nick grinned at me.

The car slowed about then and turned off the highway onto a street. "You know," said Nick. "Ever since we hit that coyote, if that's what it was, I keep thinking I can smell dog in here."

I started laughing then because Poochie tried to smell of himself.