Dark as the Night

10

When Odessa awoke later that day, the evening had just begun painting the sky an orangey gold. She struggled as she opened her eyes to pull herself through the mire of unconsciousness. She was hearing voices. "Sleeping? Earlier... Odessa... Lund... left..." Lund? Lunch? She jolted as her memory clicked into place. Lund! She jumped out of bed and ran out of her room, slamming her hip into the door knob on the way out.

Tai and Leila's conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Odessa, her happy grin countering the fact that she was tightly holding her hip. Her voice was breathy from excitement and husky from sleep as she said, "Welcome back, Leila! How did it go?"

Tai swallowed. There was that voice again, that throaty, half-asleep voice that made his breath catch. It was exactly the voice you would expect a girl to use during intimate, close moments, not standing in front of you clearly trying not to wince in pain.

What is wrong with me? He thought. She's injured and half asleep. This train of thought has to stop. Even so, he couldn't help the image that snuck in his head of her leaning over him and whispering seductively. He felt guilty, like he was violating her in his mind. He definitely had to stop.

But she looked so sleepy and that was so cute. Damnit.

Leila looked up at Odessa from her desk and frowned. "What's wrong with your hip?"

"Just a bruise," Odessa answered nonchalantly. "I hit it on the door coming out of my room. I'm having a hard time waking up."

Tai frowned too. Her voice was definitely off; she was even slurring slightly. He cleared his throat. "You were like that when I called earlier, too. You must be sleeping very deeply."

Leila considered this. "Hmm... Have you been having that problem before now, or just today? It could be because of the concussion... What are you putting in your tea?"

"Just feverfew for the headache, comfrey to help speed up healing, and chamomile for relaxation. And I only took one dose of pain killers today." Pride colored her tone at the last statement.

"I told you to take two doses today," Leila narrowed her eyes at the girl. "You can't be feeling well enough just for one. But since you didn't, that can't be causing the hypersomnia. It's probably from the concussion. We'll have to keep an eye on that..." She trailed off thoughtfully.

Odessa ignored her and changed the subject. "So how did the meeting go?"

Leila beamed and gave her a hug. She started speaking enthusiastically, and very quickly. "You've been approved! You won't go to school right away, since we need to test you for placement. You should be able to start in June. Also, you'll start training as soon as your rib heals. We need to get you an ID, but that will wait until your bruising is gone so that we can get a photo of you. You'll just need to use a guest card until then. Hopefully you'll remember your birthday and surname before then."

Suddenly, all of Odessa's grogginess was gone. She barely stopped herself from jumping up and down as she exclaimed, "I know it! It's Lund!"

Leila's mouth fell open. "Lund? Are you sure? How did you remember?"

"Tai said it," she replied with a smug grin. "Or rather, he said 'lunch' but since I was only half awake, it sounded like 'Lund' to me, and that's how I remembered. That's why I ran in here."

Tai had been following their exchange quietly and now he blinked in surprise. Did memory recovery really work like that? Who knows? He thought happily. He smiled widely at her. "I'm happy to help, even if unintentionally. So your name is Odessa Lund?"

She turned to him and shrugged a little. "Well, my parents didn't name me Odessa. I know that. But it has a nostalgic feeling to me that I can't really explain so I want to stick with it. So is that ok for my ID? Odessa Lund?"

Leila nodded. "Yes. A lot of people change their names when they get here. If they ever go back to the cities, their name is what it was when they left. But here, where we're not bound by the government's laws, we can choose our names along with our lives. Now all we need to do is figure out a birthday for you."

"When do you think I'll be healed enough for an ID photo?" Odessa asked.

"I would say that at the rate you're healing," Leila replied, "you'll be ready by Wednesday. If you can't recall it by then, we can always guess."

Odessa shrugged. "I'll work hard on remembering as much as I can before then."

Leila nodded and hugged her again. "Ok, but in the meantime, go take your pain killer and go to dinner." Odessa left the office and hurried back to her room. Leila handed the guest card to Tai. "Give this to the cooks and explain the situation to them so that she can show her own card from now on."

He took the card, nodding, and a minute later Odessa appeared in the doorway, buttoning her coat. "I'm ready!" she said as she looked up at Tai and winked.

Yeah, he needed to keep his thoughts in check.