And now we arrive at the strangest part of our tale

Crafted on Ossington
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Juno Diaz

This was really happening. Her mother was sitting there under the yellow floor lamp she had found over on Rusholme. Sitting cross legged like the yogi she never was. That was the first clue, or should have been. But Linn didn’t understand this wasn’t a dream until her mother, dead for two months, instructed her quite clearly to look at her hands. Well that was easy enough to do, which was exactly the point. She could do it. She remembered the book on dreams her mother had given her for Christmas three years ago – if you wanted to know for sure whether it was a dream or quote unquote reality, look at your hands or try to read something. Apparently these were impossible tasks to do while dreaming.