Shawnacy removed her robe, then floated over the tub for a moment before sinking into it. 

     As Noel lowered himself into the tub, he asked, "We're not interrupting anything, are we?" 

     "No!" both Estelle and Brock exclaimed at the same time and a bit too emphatically.

     "Okay, fine. How is everybody? I've been away."

​     "We're for shit," Brock replied. "We all got thrown into Domitika at the same time you did."

     "Yes, but we all didn't experience the same thing. I am certain of that." 

     Shawnacy's face darkened like that was the worst possible subject anyone could possibly bring up.

     "We got through it, anyway," Brock said. "We're all four of us together at the end of the day. I say we drink to that."

     Noel held up his sippy cup, and everyone else tapped it with theirs. 

     "To good friends," Noel said. 

     "...who survived to see the end of the day," Estelle added.

     "Amen." 

     "And this is still the same damned day as when we began this morning, right?" Noel asked. "I've kind of lost all track of time."

     "It's our last night here in the house," Brock said. "I've got a moving van coming at nine in the morning." 

     "Anthony and Ensign were here before," Estelle said. "They looked so lost. They have no idea what the hell's going on. I feel so sorry for them. We were supposed to have a little going away party tonight, and then this day happened." 

     Noel sipped. 

     "I need this," he said. "It's loosening me up. Whew! It's like my mind seized up back there. Domitika left me alone in nothingness with only my own thoughts to keep me company. Every thought I've ever thought I thought again a million times over until I despised every memory and word, and then I fought to think of nothing at all for much, much longer than that." 

     "You were in Domitika, Noel," Estelle said. "We, none of us, were in there longer than an hour."

     "That's not what I experienced." 

     Shawnacy touched Noel's fingertips with hers. Message transmitted: I love you, Noel The expression on her face, an expression Noel couldn't see because of his blindness, was so sad both Estelle and Brock had to ask themselves again, what in the hell happened to Shawnacy back there in Domitika?

     "I feel centuries old," Noel said, "even though, in this reality, I know I'm still...I'm telling you, I got to be an expert at thinking about nothing at all for decades at a time, because thinking, being awake, only meant a return to the torture of nothingness. I could never completely shut down, though, because something kept throbbing inside of me like a pulse, and what it was was love. It's everywhere. There is as much love in the multiverse as there are atoms, so, when I say I love you three, that, now, comes from the deepest part within me. It's from the power of love that we derive our soul power. That is what I believe." 

     "That's what we believe, too," Estelle replied.

     Both Brock and Shawnacy nodded vigorously. 

                                                     CONTINUE