Glimmer

Amber

Warm.

I know this feeling. Where are you?

I looked around. Someone was singing. I walked to where I thought the song was coming from. Out into the garden. There she was, on one of the benches. She stopped singing and gestured me to sit beside her. I couldn't see her face, but I think she's smiling at me. I sat down beside her and she took my hand. She placed something in my hand and closed my fingers over it so I couldn't see what it was. She kissed me on the forehead and sang again as she stroked my hair.

Warm. So warm.

I had been up late working on the layout. I had fallen asleep when I had only planned to rest my eyes and had left the computer on. Luckily, I was almost done and had only needed to add just a couple of labels before I fell asleep. Otherwise I would be late for duty and who knows what Ms. Amarissa would say.

I packed my laptop and the printout into my bag before heading downstairs. I was thinking I've been dreaming of that woman more often since I've started my internship at Hiraya. Normally, having that dream twice in a week was plenty already. These days, I dream about her every other day. There might be a connection with Hiraya or I'm just overthinking things again.

"Were you up late again last night?" my aunt asked as I entered the kitchen to get some cereal drink.

"Somewhat. Thanks," I said as she handed me a mug. I tore the packet open and poured the contents into the cup. The smell of sweet corn wafted out of the cup as I poured hot water. "Uncle Joe left already?" I asked as I set my cup down on the table. My aunt simply nodded.

I was putting some bacon on my plate when I happened to glance at my aunt's right hand as she stirred her coffee. It looked like it was covered in blood. "What happened to your hand?"

"What hand?" she asked and looked at both her hands. I had been looking at her face as she was looking at her hands. When I looked at her right hand again there was no sign of blood or anything that I could have mistaken for blood.

"What about my hands?" she asked again.

I rubbed my eyes, "I must be seeing things again." Must be tired. I felt a throbbing pain in my head but tried to ignore it.

"They seem to be working you too hard. It's just an internship."

"No, Aunt Marianne. I might be pushing myself too hard," I said taking a sip from my mug. "I really like the place and the people there. Ms. Amarissa's strict but she's nice. To me at least. Mira told me that I'm one of the few people she smiles at. I don't want to lose that."

"She smiles that rarely?"

"Yeah. Some of them even call her the Snow Queen because she comes as someone cold and uncaring. But she's not really like that."

"You really seem to like her."

"Yeah."

Aunt Marianne then asked me what I was working on there. I told about her the museum and that we would be finalizing the layout today.

"That was what you were working on last night?"

"Yeah. I fell asleep before I could finish it. But it's ok now." The pain in my head started to fade.

"You're really hardworking. Lucian would have been proud of you. I'm proud of you"

I just smiled. It's my usual reaction when she says something like that. It makes me glad to hear it yet sad at the time. I've always wondered what it would feel if dad and mom were the ones who said that.