That pathetic voice was gone, dropping a note and flattening defensively as Claudia answered, "Uncle Les?" This felt like an unnecessarily elaborate gambit just to...what? Bring her home? All of that stuff she had seen before, the glowing ball and the big buildings and those scared people, that had seemed very real and not an illusion at all. It was much more sincere when Claudia whimpered, "Uncle Les, what is going on? I had a room, a locked up basement no one had been in in years, I was miles away..."