Page 22
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.