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Something warm moves through my hands again.
“And you’ve been alive for an hour and already made fun of me once.”
“Lawn furniture.”
“Okay, that’s twice.”
I smile, and Laura does too.
She turns toward the sink, and I follow. A dark mark is still in the bottom. Yarn, knitting needles and other things I do not know are on the counter.
“Those were inside the basket,” Laura says.
“Basket?”
“The wicker basket. That’s what you came from.”
I touch my chest.
“Was before.”
“Yes.”
“Not me.”
Laura goes quiet. “No,” she says softly. “Not you.”
I press my palm more firmly against myself. “Me.”
“Yes. You.”
“Kell.”
“Yes.”
The basket changed, and now I am here. The basket was a thing.
I am not.
The knot at my hip loosens again. Laura catches the scarf, and we both look down.
She sighs. “And we still haven’t figured out how to make a decent knot.”
I touch the knitted fabric. One row is tighter than the next.
“Different.”
Laura looks at my hand. “You can tell?”
“Yes.” I do not know why I understand the difference, only that some part of me does.
“You know how this works.”
“Some.”
“You’ve been alive less than an hour.”
“Still some.”