———–

Seven

I woke up in the middle of the night and stretched slowly, squeezing my eyes shut. Things still felt off, but they felt off outside, not on the inside where I normally would feel off about the universe. An external tilt had taken me.

I staggered out of my own space and headed down to the rec room, just hoping for a larger space to be alone in. Pushing the door open I spotted her. My instincts ran in two directions at once: I wanted to go to her and I wanted to leave. I still loved her. I knew that, but I also didn’t look forward to more of her cutting tongue.

“Uhhh,” I started bravely, “hey there.” My feet took me to the couch she was curled up on all by themselves. They never even asked me, just happily walked me right up to her. Her knees were held tightly to her chest by her arms and she seemed to be looking at the floor through a cloud of her own hair. At my words she glanced over at me.

“Hey, John, hey. What are you doing up this late?” She looked back at the floor and held out a foot. “What size does this seem to be to you?” I decided she must be distracted, to be speaking calmer. Then I remembered the time, she had to be tired. That was it.

“I… I don’t know. A seven or eight maybe? I never really sized shoes real good, you know, and uhhh, yeah. So why are you up so late?”

“Couldn’t sleep, I need a better reason? Nightmares, that’s the normal one around here right? Did you have nightmares then?” Her arms unwrapped from her legs and she held her hands up in front of her face, wiggling her fingers, “Big scary nightmares maybe, chased by some guy who had your mice captive and wouldn’t give you the right shoe?” I sat slowly on the edge of the couch, not too near her and shook my head.

“No, I’ve never had a nightmare like that. I mean there was time I had a dream that I was a hamburger but that was a long time ago and I…”

“Yeah, ok John, thanks. So why are you up so late, huh?” My fingers plucked at the couch cushion and I looked directly at her, quickly changing my mind and looking away from her eyes.

“I just got up, the clocks didn’t tell me to,” I said fast, “it just happened, ok? Have you seen Benny?”

“You mean that guy who died?” My stomach lurched. “Oh, you were here when it happened weren’t you? I’m so sorry.” She leaned over and hugged me. Just… she hugged me, right then and there, clutching me to her awkwardly but firmly, bent far over with one leg coming up to rest on the couch while the other balanced her against the floor.

“See, I don’t remember it that way. I thought he just… it’s not important,” I fell silent and hugged her back. After a minute or so she let go and sat up straight. I stood and looked around the room, trying to place everything. “I should get back to bed, clock number one is going to go off way too soon, right, and I don’t want to… I should go.” She raised an eyebrow at me but shrugged, dismissing me.

I went back to bed, totally unsure of why I remembered things wrong and adding her behavior to the list of things that made no sense to me. Abigail had seemed far too nice to me, but Doctor West said that I should embrace new friends and I did love her and embracing her was pretty high on my list of ideas. She hugged me. It wasn’t the warmest hug in the world but she had hugged me.

———–
Crazy Little Thing is copyright Adam P. Knave.