He d been dozing， sleep touching him so lightly that had it not left，<br >like a fingerprint upon a pane of glass， the filmy residue of a dream，<br >he would scarcely have realized he d slept at all. This dream (already<br >turning colorless， resistant to memory) had taken place at homePnot<br >Boston or Cambridge， which over the last two years he d grown to<br >think of as home， but with Mom and Dad in Michigan. His gaze<br >drifted from his hands， open in his lap， the left palm lopsidedly<br >bunched with the scar of a burn he d picked up in college， to， miles<br >below， the Pacific， which under its glazed crust seemed to stir and<br >ripple with its own indwelling dream. He d never seen the Pacific until<br >today. It was so big--he d read somewhere--that if it were emptied<br >the other three oceans could be poured into the resulting cavity， and<br > still there would be room to spare. His watch told him nearly an hour<br > had passed since he d last checked--although all measurements of time<br > were tricky and somewhat illusory on a journey of this sort. It was<br > as if time itself had turned a little elastic; he felt himself allied with<br > those select astronauts who return to earth some infinitesimal but none-<br > theless calculable fraction of a second younger than the rest of us.<br > Noiseless barriers， transparent boundaries， the time zones one after<br > another were dropping away behind him. Soon he would cross， if he<br > hadn t already， the International Dateline， as this aircraft floated ef-<br > fortlessly， the first time he d ever made such a leap， into tomorrow.<br > He d been using， unwisely it now occurred to him， his passport to<br > mark his place in one of the books， Beginning .Japanese， ranged on the<br > empty seat beside him. He plucked the passport from the textbook<br > and intently read his own name (Daniel Chapman Ott)， birthdate (Oc-<br > tober I， I957)， and Michigan address (2135o Richhaven Ave.， Heather<br > Hills). He would turn twenty-three in a few weeks. He scrutinized<br > again the color photograph， in which his hair had come out redder<br >4k<br ><br >