Valerie tumbled out of a door and onto a hardwood floor.
Michelle landed close beside her.
The first thing Valerie saw when she raised her head was not a burlap tea stall and a smiling Buddha. It was a pair of blue lines of tape stretching away from her up the hallway, widening apart until they reached the bookcases at the threshold to her own beloved living room dominated by a large oak table.
Her living room.
Her large oak table.
They were back in Seattle. Valerie wanted to weep with joy.
She and Michelle helped each other to their feet. Late afternoon sun sparkled in through the living room windows, washing her apartment in a golden glow.
“I guess this is where you and I started,” Michelle said in barely an absent-minded whisper. “But I meant to go to Heaven where this mess reall
