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When ell away froinal world, you mean?" he asked

"Yes, infat cat onAs if this was a drea"

"Your what?"

"Phone It’s a ht she was sick It was hard to openme back I saw you here, for just a second, but then I was there again"

"So the salts worked," he said to hihed "I did what I had to Assessed the situation as a professional, made Nana feel better, and pro And then I was here"

"Curious"

"Yep"

We walked for a while, each lost in thought, a light breeze stirring the ringlets that had fallen from my hairdo when I collapsed At one point, he stopped to re the black one I had worn earlier underneath With a coy sain until it was the size of a handkerchief, and then he stuffed it into one of the inside pockets of the black coat I grinned, as delighted as a child, knowing that his ic would never seem quotidian to e world

"So the real question is, why did you go back?" he finally said

"No, the real question is, how do I get back to stay?"

"Do you think that’s possible?" he asked

"I don’t know," I adument, that both worlds are real If every time I sleep here, I’m awake there, and every tio crazy If there are no real dreams, if my brain can’t rest, it’ll be torture"

I kicked a rabbit that was sniffing at ed myself and turned away froently, ainst his body and his arms around me, I relaxed a little Whether it was his smell or just the closeness of another person, I couldn’t stop the words frobecause I’m sad I’m just so relieved If it’s back and forth, that randmother I was so scared that I would be trapped here forever, and randmother would worry about et to live both lives, even though it makes no sense and will probably make me completely insane"

"Insanity isn’t too bad" He chuckled "I know plenty of et on fine"

"But there are so"If I die in this world, do I die in that world? What if I go unconscious while driving? What if I’m asleep there, and a patient dies because I’m here?"

"I don’t know, pet But I’ll try to find out I’ve got some old books I can check," he said "Perhaps this has happened before"

"There’s no ic in my world," I said "But there’s a disease called narcolepsy People just fall asleep standing up wherever they are for no good reason Maybe this is where they go Maybe I’ht think it’s the best of both worlds, no pun intended," he said carefully

"But I want a choice," I said

I jerked away from him and stumbled, and when he tried to steady me, I swatted him away

"Look, I have commitment issues, OK? I had a fiancé, and he almost destroyed me He treated me like a child, or a doll He hit ht back, never to be controlled again And now here I am, trapped"

He watched my outburst with concern, hands in pockets andhim to interrupt and tell me how to fix my problems, the way Jeff would have Instead, he just listened

"What if I like it here better? Nothing’s ever equal What if I spend allfeeling guilty for not wanting to go back to Earth? What if I start to care about someone, what if I start to care about you? I could never randive up and die It would rip round, the skirt of undy mushroo to the ground beside ree, love It is fair, and you can win"<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>