I had napped, taking forty-five minutes to myself to try to restore what hadn’t been restored by the time in that alien landscape. Carol hadn’t rested at all, working out with my cousin that we would be going out later, then immediately starting with her wardrobe, hair and makeup.

All in all, Carol had taken an hour to get ready.

My clothes were somewhat rumpled, so I ventured back to the bathroom and called out, “Crystal?”

My voice wasn’t that loud, but it sounded deafening with how quiet it all was.

“—hate being bothered when I’m showering. Give me a few minutes of peace, damn it—”

The grumbling continued.

“Can I borrow clothes?”

“Yes! Go away!”

Crystal wasn’t a morning person.

I stepped away to fish around in her closet, when I heard her talking again, which led to me exiting the bedroom to get closer to the bathroom door and listen.

“—not from the boxes.”

“You don’t want me to grab anything you’ve already packed?” I asked.

“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked. “You’re interrupting my shower and you’re not even listening.”

“You told me to go away, so I walked away. Your shower’s in progress and you have water on you, nothing’s interrupted. Stop being prickly.”

“Stop interrupting my shower and I’ll stop being prickly.”

“I’ll grab something. Thank you.”

I’d just reached her closet when I heard her talking again, which forced me back out of her room to get to where I could hear her again.

“—can check on Mark.”

“What?”

“While we’re there at the new headquarters, we can check on Mark. They should have a link to Shin.”

“Okay,” I said. “Stop talking. Shower. We’ll work it out after.”

I rolled my eyes, looked at Carol, and realized what I was doing when I saw how unflinching she was, not batting an eyelash, not really reacting or reflecting what I was doing or what the external world was doing.

The smile she put on her face was very much the kind of smile that was put on faces. Nothing wrong with it, but I could tell she was making an effort.

“Doing okay?” I asked, feeling like I’d done something wrong or alien by being natural with Crystal, when it was my mom who was out of place. Or was it guilt, because the little wrongnesses about my mom were in part due to the head injury, which was in large part my own fault?

“Doing better,” my mom said. “It warms my heart, seeing you two together. I’m glad you have each other.”

“I’m glad too,” I said. My foot hurt, so I picked it up off the ground, drilling the floor with my toe a bit. I felt like a kid with no idea what to do while being addressed by an adult.

“Coffee?” my mom asked.

“Sure,” I told her. “Please.”

“Maybe a breakfast sandwich? English muffin, meat hash patty, no egg?”

“Please. That’d be great.”