Only by Moonlight

Chapter 13

            She grinned unrepentantly. “Well, it looked romantic from my point of view.” Her grin faded. “But then he just disappeared after bringing you up here, right? You haven’t seen him since?”

            “Well….” I hemmed.

            “So he came back? What did he say? What did he do?”

            “Sssshhhh!” I warned, frowning. “Rose will be coming in here any minute.”

            “She’s attempting to make you breakfast,” Alice reminded me with a grin. “Who knows how long that could take?”  

            “Why don’t you go help her then?” I hinted broadly.

            “I will…after you tell me what happened.” I sighed again, and as she saw the resigned expression cross my face, she clapped her hands in anticipation.

            That’s Alice….

            “Okay, okay. Let’s see…” I was aware of the lessening of my pain as I warmed to my subject; finally the pain meds were helping. “I was only about half-conscious when I first heard Edward’s voice. I didn’t catch much of what he said to Mike—just enough to know that he was laying into him pretty well. His voice was so…thrilling and yet so calming at the same time. He just sounded—I don’t know—right.” I felt my cheeks heating up as I paused for a second, reimagining the scene in my mind. “Then he picked me up, and his arms and chest were really cold….I mean icy. And he carried me as if I weighed nothing. Once he put me down in here and saw that I had help, he disappeared. After we got back from the ER and Rose and Em settled me in, I fell asleep right away. But the pain medications—they gave me really weird dreams. I mean, totally bizarre and completely vivid dreams.”

            Alice frowned, puzzled. “What do dreams have to do with Edward?”

            “Everything. You remember my freewrite—wait, of course you do since you designed my costume based on it.” I glanced at her curiously. “Did you borrow my notebook so that you could design the dress?”    

            “Nope.” She grinned, popping the “p” slightly. “As I read your story that day, I envisioned you in a midnight-blue gown, and that’s what I designed for you.”

            I sat up straighter against the pillows with excitement. “Alice, the dress you made was exactly the same as the one I wore in my daydream. And I mean exactly—down to the trim on the flounces.” I paused, mentally comparing the dress in my dream to the dress Alice made me. My voice dropped to a whisper, awestruck. “Even the hairstyle you created for me was identical to my imagination.”

            Alice’s large eyes were gargantuan with shock. “No way,” she breathed.

            “Yes,” I nodded, my voice as soft with wonder as hers. “Alice, the entire costume was exactly the same as the one I wore in my daydream. And then….” I paused, trying to gather my words as a wave of drowsiness, thanks to my faithful meds, swept through me. Blinking, I fought against the sleepiness; I still had so much to talk about now that the pain had abated. And retelling the story to a good friend lightened the weight of self-blame that I had been carrying since the party had gone awry.  

            “There’s more?” Alice clapped her hands again as if I had just announced an impromptu trip to Disneyland.

            “As I said, the pain medications make me really sleepy, and they also seem to affect my dreams. So anyway, I dreamed that Edward and I were back at the ball—just as if I had picked up dreaming precisely where my freewrite had stopped. I was wearing the midnight blue dress again, and he waltzed me across the dance floor. And…” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “Edward really knows how to dance!”