Chapter 39
Shannon heard her name called softly in the night and rose to answer it. She was still somewhere between dream and reality, and in her mind, it was Alicia’s voice. She was always fearful upon opening her eyes on the almost perfect blackness her sleep mask provided, but when she pulled it from her eyes the light flooded in and filled her with comfort. Inside her bedroom all the lights burned brightly, the overhead fixture, two bedside lamps. The lively glare of the television, silently proclaiming the virtue of Ginsu Knives. The infomercials didn’t bother her like they used to, the secret to not letting them bother you, she had discovered, was to keep the sound off. They provided that much more light, that much more life.
She made her way into the hall. Her belly precede
