Through The Ascension Room***Book One COMPLETE***

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX ~PART FOUR~

The sound of something crackling pulls me out of my restful slumber. The smell of something good cooking penetrates my nostrils and I am sparked awake. I squint and blink my eyes letting the light of the room slowly touch my eyes. I sit up off the floor bed Aubri had prepared for me the night before and twist from side to side, stretching, waking up my slumbering limbs and joints.

As my eyes begin to focus, more and more of the room comes into focus. I realize the smell is that of bacon cooking.

I turn and look into the kitchen area. Through an opening in the wall that connects the living room and the kitchen I can see a concentrated Aubri darting back and forth. In and out of view, eyes cast downward, focused on something.

I slowly lift my body off of the floor; straighten my clothing as they are now shifted and twisted around my body in such a way that it makes them feel three sizes too small for my body.

Once I'm done dealing with my clothes issue I make my way into the kitchen. It takes a few seconds but Aubri finally looks up from her frantic cooking to see that I'm standing in the dining area between the kitchen and living room. She stops what she is doing.. An exhausted smile shows on her face as she juts out her bottom lip releasing a puff of breath up her face, bouncing a locket of hair from out of her face.

"I wanted to make you guys breakfast. I figured you guys would be starving," she says seeming almost as if I was upset that she was cooking us breakfast.

"Can I help?" I ask hoping she says yes.

A smile and a sigh of relieve answer for me. But just in case she still nods her head and says, "yes."

I come into the kitchen and she tells me to watch over the bacon. The sizzling beast nearly proves too much for me to handle as it spits its scorching liquid at me burning my arm on multiple occasions. In the end, with the use of a force field surrounding the hissing bacon, I am victorious over the bacon and I pile the cooked strips of mouthwatering bacon onto a plate Aubri had handed me.

"You would think a girl who works in a diner might be able to cook right?" She says sending me a sideways glance peering through a couple of strands of hair that had positioned themselves directly in her face. She must have just given into that battle with her hands full of this and that she really couldn't do much about it at this point.

I walk over to the dining table and pick up a hair pin from the table top and walk over to Aubri. I swipe up the loose hair into my hand and slide the pin into her hair locking it in place pulling the loose strands of hair up and out of her face.

"Yeah," I jokingly agree with her, "what are they thinking letting you work in a diner?"

Her mouth becomes agape as she uses the side of her forearm to bump into mine.

"They're lucky you haven't burnt the place down you know," I continue.

"Ha, ha, very funny. We've got quite the comedian on our hands, don't we," she says with an open mouth smile; returning her focus on the object in her hands and finding them a home.

It feels good to be doing something normal for a change. I continue to take cooking orders from Aubri and we finish making the breakfast. Eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast. Tristis and Cynthia wake up around the same time we finish cooking. I help Aubri set a table with plates, cups and silverware.

My stomach growls urging me to fill my mouth with the food that I've helped prepare. I hush it with a gentle rub and it subdues for a while longer.

We all sit around the table and scarf down the food like it was the first time we have ever tasted food. It tasted good in my mouth and immediately gave my stomach the pleasant feeling of fullness. I lean back in my chair and glance around at the table. Happy, content, chewing faces. A sense of complacency fills me from my head to my toes. I am overwhelmed with the feeling of belonging. Fellowship. Family. This must be what happiness is truly like. Spending time with the ones you care about, day after day.