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GOTAMA RETURNS
Miss Buddha — 44
Chapter Forty-Four — Pasadena
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What woke him were spoken words, drifting. A soft breeze.
At first — even though he was now awake — they seemed like so much dream, part of his lingering inner landscape, but then (listening now) they were not. No, they came from elsewhere. Not inside his head at all. Outside. In the house. Somewhere.
Sitting up in bed now, the better to listen, he recognized the voice: It was Melissa’s. Then nothing, and nothing. Then he hears her again. Yes, talking, softly. Nearby.
Wide awake now, he heard her say, “What do you mean, glow? Like an aura?”
He looked down at her empty pillow, who seemed strangely eager to corroborate; then out through the bedroom door, slightly ajar.
“And that is why you chose me as your mother?” she said from the hallway outside, or from just beyond it.
Placing his feet on the carpet, he heard, “You saw me, as aura?”
Standing up now, unsure, a little afraid, he heard her say, “From where?”
By the bedroom door now, he knew from where the voice came: Ruth’s room. “What are you talking about?” Melissa said.
