SHAY GOES BACK TO SLEEP, but I can’t.
Jenna is in the shadows. She knows I’m alone.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to hold her away, to pretend she’s not there—because if I accept she’s real, doesn’t that prove that I can’t tell the difference between things that exist and those that are only in my mind?
But Shay said I’m not crazy. That Jenna was real, that things she’s shared with me actually happened.
If I’m not crazy, then what does it mean?
Maybe I don’t have to slip to unconsciousness and wait for Jenna to reach out to me in a dream. Maybe I can reach out to her.
“Jenna?”
She’s happy—that’s understating what she feels. Her mind joins with mine in overwhelming joy.
I see so many things. She’s excited and shows one memory after another, until we get to the day she first found Mum in Newcastle. I see through her eyes, savor the memory—watching Mum. I feel Jenna’s joy and my own to see her again.
I want to leave this place and go to her—to Mum. I have to find the way to get beyond the edge.
Jenna’s approval fills me.
But all of the things she shows me are from when Jenna thought she was me.
“Who was Jenna as herself?” I ask her, and there is quiet. She’s withdrawing, and then she’s gone.