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the boards and the rusted-through tin roof. 
    The memory of the barn from his dream— this barn—came rushing back to him in an instant, and with it came that awful feeling of gut-wrenching fear and foreboding with which he’d awakened each night.  Though he could still remember no other details about the dream, not even the reason why this barn filled him with irrational dread, he was sure that he had seen this very same barn in his sleep. 
    But how?  He’d never been here in his life.  How would he even know that such a place existed? 
    “What do you mean you’re looking at it right now?” asked Karen.  “You mean it’s real?  It’s there ?”
    “I’m looking right at it.  It’s here.  I’m standing right in front of it.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Uh huh.”
    “How do you know it’s the same barn?”
    “I just do.”
    “But you didn’t remember anything from your dream until just now.”
    “I know.  But this was in my dream.  This exact barn.  I know it was.  As soon as I saw it, I remembered it.”
    “Send me a picture of it.”
    “What?” 
    “Send me a picture.  I want to see it.”
    “How do you expect me to—?”
    “The camera on your phone, goofball.”
    “I have a camera on my phone?” 
    “Yes.  You know that.”
    “No I don’t.”  But he realized even as he argued with her that he did recall her telling him about the camera when she first gave the annoying little device to him.  At the time, he thought the phone was an utter waste of money even without a camera in it.  It was just one of dozens of extra features he’d never had any intention of using.
    “Send it to me.”
    “How do I do that, exactly?”
    Karen talked him through the process.  He had to hang up to do it, but soon enough she was looking at the very same barn on her phone, seeing precisely what he was seeing. 
    He refused to admit that that really was kind of cool. 
    “That’s a really creepy barn,” agreed Karen after calling him back.
    “Yes it is.”
    “You’re sure this was in your dream?”
    “Positive.”
    “That’s really weird, Eric.”
    “Well, yeah.”
    “ Scary weird.”
    “I know.”
    “What if…”
    “What if what?”
    For a moment she was silent.  Then she surprised him by saying, “What if it’s all real?  You’re… feelings .  The things that old woman said.  All of it.  What if it’s real?”
    “You don’t really believe any of that stuff, do you?”
    “Do you ?”
    There was the real question.  After all, if he didn’t believe any of it, why would he be out here?  Some part of him must have expected to find something .  Otherwise he would have turned around long before he reached the county line.  And he certainly never would have left his car. 
    “I don’t know,” he confessed.  “I really don’t.”
    “I can’t decide if it’s really scary or really kind of cool.”
    Eric found himself leaning toward “really scary” but perhaps that was just him.  “Listen, I’m going to have to hang up for a little while.”
    “Don’t hang up.  I want to know what you find.”
    He was surprised to realize that he was already walking toward the door.  “Even if I don’t, I have a feeling I’m going to lose the signal again in a minute.”
    “Okay.  Just…  Please be careful.”
    “I will.”
    He hung up the phone and approached the barn.  He thought he might find the huge, double doors locked or otherwise blocked off in some way.  Given the condition of the barn, he wouldn’t have been surprised to find the hinges sagging or broken, leaving the heavy doors weighted hopelessly into the dirt.  If he were to tell the honest truth, he hoped that he would find his way blocked.  But one of the two doors stood ajar, almost as if it were waiting for him. 
    Just above the doors, someone had mounted a bronze eagle with its wings spread in flight.  The instant he looked up at this decoration, he recognized it.  He’d looked upon