Chronicles of Han: Preserving Creata: Part 1: Learning Curve
Chapter Thirty-Two

The delicious smell of fresh coffee and the sound of crackling bacon greeted me as I woke up.

My body was feeling much better and I could tolerate the water from the shower on my skin.

Everything somehow seemed brighter than before. Much cleaner, with a glow around it, as if I was seeing in bright but diffused sunlight. Even the water had a rainbow of colours as it cascaded over me. I was showering in a rainbow.

I heard the front door open and smelt Julie’s perfume.

I closed the water. No normal man should have smelt it. I stood with my back supported by the wet shower wall, placing the palms of my hands flat on the wall. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the inevitable conversation that must follow.

It came to me, at first, as though hearing through a tunnel, then suddenly sounding normal.

“Hi. Glad to see you up so early. How’s your young Mr Storm doing?” Julie asked her uncle.

“Up and about, and hopefully dressed by now. The water stopped flowing so he should join us in a few minutes. May I pour you a mug of coffee?”

I came back to myself.

I had never left. I only transported my physical senses somewhere else.

Wow! This was something I could use really well.

I dressed quickly and rushed to the kitchen, afraid to miss too much. Like a little boy with a new toy, I could not wait to start practicing. I would keep it to myself for a while until I had this new thing under control.

“Hi,” Julie greeted. “You look a lot better. How does your body feel?”

Dearest Julie. She was always the nurse first. I beamed my most handsome smile at her, nodded to Tucker and dove into the food.

With all the pain I had last night, I did not make it to the kitchen for solid food. I was now beyond starving, so did not think much while eating, intent on working my way through everything set out on the table that was not on someone else’s plate.

Eventually, I became aware of Tucker and Julie staring at me.

Tucker had a look of amusement on his face, Julie one of concern.

I shrugged at them, my mouth full with the last bit of bread I had dipped into the gravy at the bottom of the bacon dish.

“Now I’m starting to feel better,” I told them after swallowing.

Tucker laughed out loud. “I’m glad you have your appetite back. I’ll have to go do some more shopping. At this rate you are going to spend your whole pay on food only.”

Thank goodness I was in a profession that paid hundred percent for housing.

“Do you feel up to some exercise?” Julie wanted to know. “We go to the park one day of the weekend. I saw a park a couple of blocks from here that looks lovely.”

Julie was dressed sensibly in a summer dress and sandals. I nodded my consent and offered her my arm. She declined gracefully.

“I told you I have someone. And you are not family.”

That remark stung. I felt it in my heart as surely as I saw it on Tucker’s face.

He ducked around the hurt and hastened us, “Come on you two. I do not want to get there when it gets crowded.”

The elevator worked!

I had a sudden vision of Tucker throwing his toys out of the cot and arranging repair personnel on his personal account. It had never occurred to me that I could pay to have it fixed. And all this time I took the stairs!

I concentrated on walking those two blocks to the park. It was a slight uphill and my body really started struggling as we reached the second intersection.

Julie must have known that my body would respond this way. She kept on looking back at me.

Tucker supported me the last stretch into the park where I sat down thankfully on the nearest bench. I did not realize that my body was so weak after what had happened the last two days.

Julie went for her walk asTucker settled beside me. There was a comfortable silence between us.