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you are Julia’s beloved, yes?”
    His eyes widen and then he dissolves into laughter.
    Ah, perhaps it was all a misunderstanding. It didn’t seem possible. I relax. “You are not?”
    He runs his beefy hands through his hair and shakes his head. “You people are, like, totally unreal. The way you talk. It’s just … priceless.”
    There’s heat under my collar; this conversation is already proving tiresome. “How do you mean?”
    “You sound like one of those old movies. Or my great-grandfather.” He stops laughing when he sees the confusion on my face. “Sorry. It’s been a really crazy few days.”
    I nod. I vaguely remember my first days as a Sandman, when everything was new. Things were odd, I suppose. Truthfully, though, I fit into this world rather easily—almost too easily. Chimere said I was a natural. Perhaps it was because I didn’t fit so perfectly into the human world. I’ve always spoken and acted differently than humans, even when I was one.
    “So yes,” he finally answers, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “I am Julia’s ‘beloved.’”
    “Oh,” I say, perhaps a bit more dejectedly than I’d planned. I motion to Julia’s home. “So this must be familiar to you.”
    He shrugs. “The house, not the room. I’ve been to the house a couple of times.” He moves closer to the window and strains to peer inside. “Julia wasn’t the most … physical of girls, if you know what I mean.”
    I nod knowingly. Julia always seemed like a girl of great virtue.
    He squints. “What year did you go toes up, again?”
    “Nineteen ten,” I answer.
    “Holy mother, are you old. Back then girls got it on a lot earlier, didn’t they? Wasn’t the average life expectancy, like, thirty?”
    I shake my head. He’s making fun of me. I decide to change the subject. “Perhaps we should begin the training now. I have a lot to teach you.”
    “Okay, yeah. When do I get to do Julia?”
    The words stick on my tongue like glue. “ Do Julia?”
    He leans forward, excited. “Yeah. Like, whatever. Seduce her.” He makes an odd gesture with both hands, as if he’s squeezing produce.
    “Not tonight. I think it’s best I teach you some fundamental rules before we get into that. You’ll need practice before you actually carry out the seduction.”
    He blows a tuft of hair out of his eyes. “I know the rules. Chimere told me the basics. I want to get on with the show.”
    I draw in a breath and let it out slowly, then calmly say, “Mr. Colburn, I am sure that Chimere told you that if you’renot fully capable of assuming my position, I will not be able to leave mine once my hundred years have expired. That means you have to be fully versed in everything we do, even if it requires hearing the same thing more than once. The curriculum has been established over the course of thousands of years and it’s not my place to change it. I am sure you understand.”
    His mouth becomes a straight line and he crosses his arms in front of his chest. He doesn’t understand, but at least he doesn’t object.
    “All right,” I begin, “the most important rules to know are these. One: You are only in the humans’ world to soothe them to sleep. You can offer certain protections, which I will explain in time, but they are limited. You must never put your own needs or desires ahead of those of your charges. Once they are resting comfortably, you must exit their locale. Is that clear?”
    It appears his eyes have glazed over, but before I can wave a hand in front of his face, he nods. “Chimere told me this already,” he mutters. “But fine, I get it. Just following the curriculum. It’s your breath, not mine.”
    “It bears repeating,” I return.
    He nods. “Get them to sleep, and get out. Got it. Next?”
    The days of training this boy seem to stretch out before me like a long, winding path. Perhaps this is the type of young man whom a young woman of today would be eager to call her beloved, but I can’t imagine