Be happy, Mel. Enjoy it all. Appreciate it for me.

I will, she promised.

Bye, we thought together.

Doc’s hand pressed the cloth gently over my face. I breathed in deeply, ignoring the thick, uncomfortable scent. As I took another breath, I saw the three stars again. They were not calling to me; they were letting me go, leaving me to the black universe I had wandered for so many lifetimes. I drifted into the black, and it got brighter and brighter. It wasn’t black at all—it was blue. Warm, vibrant, brilliant blue… I floated into it with no fear at all.

CHAPTER 59: Remembered

CHAPTER 59

Remembered

The beginning would feel like the end. I’d been warned.

But this time the end was a greater surprise than it had ever been. Greater than any end I’d remembered in nine lives. Greater than jumping down an elevator shaft. I had expected no more memories, no more thoughts. What end was this?

The sun is setting—the colors are all rosy, and they make me think of my friend… what would her name be here? Something about… ruffles? Ruffles and more ruffles. She was a beautiful Flower. The flowers here are so lifeless and boring. They smell wonderful, though. Smells are the best part of this place.

Footsteps behind me. Has Cloud Spinner followed me again? I don’t need a jacket. It’s warm here—finally!—and I want to feel the air on my skin. I won’t look at her. Maybe she’ll think I can’t hear and she’ll go home. She is so careful with me, but I’m almost grown now. She can’t mother me forever.

“Excuse me?” someone says, and I don’t know the voice.

I turn to look at her, and I don’t know the face, either. She’s pretty.

The face in the memory jerked me back to myself. That was my face! But I didn’t remember this.…

“Hi,” I say.

“Hello. My name is Melanie.” She smiles at me. “I’m new in town and… I think I’m lost.”

“Oh! Where are you trying to go? I’ll take you. Our car is just back —”

“No, it’s not far. I was going for a walk, but now I can’t find my way back to Becker Street.”

She’s a new neighbor—how nice. I love new friends.

“You’re very close,” I tell her. “It’s just around the second corner up that way, but you can cut right through this little alley here. It takes you straight there.”

“Could you show me? I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

“Of course! Come with me. I’m Petals Open to the Moon, but my family mostly calls me Pet. Where are you from, Melanie?”

She laughs. “Do you mean San Diego or the Singing World, Pet?”