Page 100 of Baking and Angels

He knows it is timeto return.

Chapter 38

Coming to an Understanding

Rafferty felt blurry as he returned to himself. His body still felt like it floated, and time ticked by for an eternity before he was aware enough to even tryto twitch.

“Take it slow,” Honey’s soothing voice said as she appeared in his vision. She gripped his hand and squeezed, which seemed to help him feel more realand alive.

“It’s like I’m squeezing in between realities…” hemuttered.

Honey laughed. “That’s one way to put it. Just take it slow, waking up can bejarring.”

“Waking up?” he asked, as he did not listen to her advice and tried to sit up. His head swam, and he had to yield back to gravity. Lying back, he realized he was on a couch in a normal-looking living room.

“Let me get you something cold to drink. It can help.” She stood and turned, leaving his vision.

His gaze followed her, and he saw the room continue into a dining space with two exits on the other end, one leading into a kitchen and another probably turning off toward thebedrooms.

“Where am I?” he asked, too softly to really be heard, but Honey called back to him anyway.

“This is my apartment,” sheanswered.

That didn’t really make a whole lot of sense considering where he had just been, but he didn’t have the will to argue about it. A few moments later, Honey returned, offering him a glass of cold water.

“Drink this; it will help. Coming back from the other side like that can be disorienting.”

This time he managed to sit up properly, the world becoming more and more real and what just happened less and less. “Why… why don’t Iremember?”

“What do you remember?” Honey encouraged.

He took a deep pull of the water. “It was… it waslikea dream. I understood… I understood everything… but now it’s fading.”

“That is alright, let it fade. What you need will remain with you and what you have forgotten will be there for you when you return, as it always has been,” Honey assured.

“But what happened? I don’t understand. Where is my maman? Did she…?” His heart thundered against his ribs as that sliver of memory flashed. She had dissipated into the light, paying the price he had always feared. He pressed the palms of his hands hard against his throbbing temples. “I don’t understand.”

“You had a dream about your mother?” Honey asked.

He jerked, spilling some water. “Uh, yes… no… it wasn’t a dream. It wasreal, I saw her… You were there?”

Honey didn’t answer his question, only smiled.

Then a thought occurred to him.

No.

An understanding.

She wasn’t going to talk about what just happened. She would neither confirm nor deny it. It was not her way.

He had no idea how he knew that, but it was as sure a fact as the gravity holding him down to the planet.

He thought his head would explode trying to understand his understanding.

Honey sat next to him, waiting for him to keepspeaking.

“How long… have I been here?” he asked instead, looking to the window, which shone with a gray daylight. It had been night when he had arrived at this place.

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