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the counter looked young, perhaps fourteen, her left wrist unblemished and free of scars. Heavy green makeup accented her eyelids, tapering into long wings that scooped across each temple, and silver rings swung from her nose and lips as she punched the first price carelessly into the till. She hadn’t given Nellie more than a cursory glance.
    Here we go , thought Nellie, letting her own eyelids sink heavily over her eyes. Slow it all down, turn it inside-out.
    “Inside-out”was her term for it, knowing no other way to describe the sensation of flipping backward into the darkness of her head, where she dissolved into a deep throbbing hum. At the same time she remained conscious of her position in front of the till, staring at the oblivious clerk through the narrow slits of her eyes. It was a little like being in two places at once. Anchored inside her physical body, Nellie also floated within the deep hum of her mind, sending herself beyond her own skin like an electrical field that permeated everything in its path and converted it into a vast pattern of shimmering bits of energy. As she did, solid objects lost their outlines and the molecules within each box and can of food, the counter before her, even the clerk’s body, came into focus, humming and throbbing like a massive swarm of bees.
    Or souls , thought Nellie, vibrating at the center of the vast pattern that surrounded her. Rocks and water and walls and tin cans all have souls. Most people just can’t see them.
    Tuning into the molecular plane of existence was a little like being shifted into high gear, and her thoughts raced as she scanned the throbbing pattern. As far as she’d been able to figure out, the molecular field served as a buffer—a kind of intermediate stage you had to tune into in order to be able to see the exit points leading to the next level of reality. If you didn’t know how to locate these gates you were stuck in your home level, the one into which you’dbeen born. Probing the shimmering bits of energy that lay before her, Nellie quickly found what she was seeking—three, no four tiny seams that ran spiderlike through the quivering mass that surrounded them. Four gates. This corner store had obviously been used for inter-level traveling before.
    Slowing her thoughts, Nellie tuned partway back into her normal view of reality. As she did, the shelves of tin cans and baked goods swam into focus, overlapped with her view of the molecular field so each object hummed and shifted within its outline. Across the counter the clerk now radiated such a mass of energy that it drifted, free-form, from her arms and back. Nellie grinned, thinking of angels she’d seen pictured in children’s books. Superimposing realities made them much more interesting. It also meant she could now figure out how the four gates aligned with solid reality. A quick scan of the overlapped realities located one seam snaking horizontally along the wall beside the store entrance, another laid across the floor, and two that hovered vertically midair—the closest at body height and a mere two steps to her right.
    Perfect , Nellie thought with a burst of satisfaction. The Goddess was definitely looking out for her today. Traveling between the levels was much easier if a ready-made gate stood waiting in a convenient position. All she had to do now was stop time in this level, open the gate and step through. But first she had to position herself so she was standing directly against the gate. A foot too far to the right or left and she would miss her chance.
    Taking two steps to the right, Nellie positioned herself so the vertical midair seam ran directly through her body. Then she fixed on the hum at the base of her brain and moved deep into its vibrations. Slow, she thought. Slow it all down, take it toward sleep. Sleep, sleep, everything sleep. Obedient to her thoughts, the hum deepened. As it did, the room’s molecular field began to lose its intensity, a swarm of bees