It was a regular afternoon and I was visiting in the home of my friends L. and N., who are adolescent sisters and each one is jealous of the other one's friends. I was sure I had spent the whole afternoon with N. talking and talking and as though time had flown. It became morning and we had no notion of the time that had elapsed. Her father, who is rude but affectionate, was there and so was her mother, who is cold, distant and calculating, but who surprised us this morning with her agreeableness. I don't remember what we were talking about, what we were discussing which made us unwilling to end the conversation. Then N. told me that she had to take a bath and had to go out for some reason, and there wasn't any water in her house. In spite of some shame, due partly to the personal nature of taking a bath and partly to the uncertainty as to how my mother would react (and even my father, though I was pretty sure he wouldn't be home), I offered N. the bathroom at my home. First she seemed to feel uncomfortable, but then, thinking it over, she accepted the offer and we went to my house with the towel in hand. I felt refreshed, calm, satisfied, as though enjoying an inner peace. Walking there, I awoke.