"I know. I--"
She pulled back the blanket on my bed.
"Go on, get some sleep," she said. "You've had quite a day and quite an evening. Come on, silly," she urged, and I laughed and climbed into bed. She tucked the blanket in around me. "Sweet dreams, Celeste, my Celeste," she said as she stroked my hair. "You're always in mine. You've been there for some time. Even before I set eyes on you," she added, which made no sense to me.
But then, nothing was making sense to me. I started to think about things that happened at dinner, things that were said, but everything was so jumbled. I felt her kiss me on the cheek, brush my hair again, and then I heard her walk out, turning the lights off as she slowly closed the bedroom door.
Moments later, I felt as if the room was spinning. I closed my eyes and surely blacked out, but it wasn't for long. I opened my eyes again and tried to move my arms, but they seemed disconnected. The same was true for my legs. A moment later I was drifting back, falling into the bed, sinking deeper and deeper. I closed and opened my eyes, but nothing changed.
It was as though I was asleep and yet still awake. I heard a voice, and I smelled men's cologne, the cologne that Basil wore. Was it so embedded in my memory from when I had smelled it on him earlier? I vaguely thought so. I thought I was moving my arms, moving my legs, but it seemed too much like a dream. I was drifting again. My body shook and then seemed to rise and fall as though I was sliding down an undulating hill, moving through warm and then cold places. The feeling lasted for quite a while, and then it was truly as if all the lights had been turned off, and I was sinking into a dark pit.
When I woke, daylight was pouring through my windows. I was terribly confused. For a while, I couldn't remember where I was. Was I in the orphanage again? It was as if everything that happened to me during the recent past was a dream. I groaned, stirred and sat up, and immediately felt nauseous. I thought I had to vomit, but that passed, and I dropped my head back to the pillow. Gradually, I remembered where I was. When I looked at the clock on my night table, I was shocked to see that it was nearly eleven.
Eleven!
I had slept this long?
I looked at myself and realized I was naked. How did I get naked? Didn't I go to sleep in my nightgown? Where was my nightgown?
I sat up again and looked about, finally seeing it crumpled on the floor beside the bed. Once again, I caught a whiff of Basil's cologne, so strong that I actually looked about the room and into the bathroom to see if he was here.
What was going on? The last thing I remember. . . what was the last thing I remembered?
Wasn't Ami here?
Where was she now? Why hadn't anyone tried to wake me up for school?
I sat at the edge of the bed and tried to get my bearing, get my head clear, but the spinning wouldn't stop, and the nausea returned. What was wrong with me? I had started to stand when the phone rang. I reached for it slowly, my arm seeming to telescope out of my elbow. I'm hallucinating, I thought, as the walls of the room pulsated like the walls of a heart.
"Celeste?" I heard. I guess I had been holding the receiver against my ear but for seconds had not said a word.
"Yes?"
"It's Trevor. Why aren't you in school?"
"School? Oh. I don't know," I said.
"What? What do you mean, you don't know? Are you sick or what?"
"I don't know," I said. "Yes. Maybe I'm sick."
"Maybe? Well, do you have any fever? What's wrong with you?"
"I don't know," I said. "Maybe."
"You're not making any sense."
"I know," and. "I mean . . . I'm tired. I'll see you later, okay?"
"What?"
I hung up the phone. Take a shower, I thought. Take a cold shower. My body trembled when I stood up. I wasn't cold as much as I was simply unsteady. The room spun again, and I had to sit back on the bed to wait for the spinning to end.
Suddenly I heard my door open, and I turned to see Ami step in, yawn, and look at me.
"I thought you were still here. I thought I heard the phone ring."
"I overslept," I said.