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Her Wicker Temptation

Page 22

by Alana Khan

When I finish, she glances back.

“Good enough until tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. I’m calling everybody in the morning.”

A name comes immediately.

“Rachel.”

Laura nods.

“Locke?”

“Yes.”

That name matters differently. Someone else who was something before and is himself now.

“I want Locke.”

“I thought you might.”

I sit on the edge of the bed. The mattress gives beneath my weight, and I put one hand beside me until the movement makes sense.

Laura remains near the doorway. For a while neither of us speaks. This silence is not like the before. There is a room around it. Laura is inside it with me.

Eventually she says, “I’m across the hall. I’ll leave my door open. If you need something, say my name.”

I know it now.

“Laura.”

Her smile comes quickly. “Exactly.”

She starts toward the doorway.

I still have one question. “Tomorrow.” Laura turns back. “You still here?”

She is quiet for a moment, then comes back one step. “Yes. I’ll be here.”

I nod.

“Good night, Kell.”

“Good night, Laura.”

Her name comes easily now.

She crosses the hall, and a moment later I hear her moving in her room.

I lie back.

Before I was here, there was no above or below. No room. No distance. No body that belonged to me. There were sounds and words and fragmented memories. Now I have hands that move because I decide to move them. Words that form and come out as sounds from my mouth. Water inside my living weave. A name that means me.

And a room for now.

Across the hall, Laura moves through hers.