Chapter Thirty-one

On the third day when he awoke Jaxsen lay in his bed for a moment listening to the sounds coming from the living room. He smiled. It was the sound of a family. His family. He pictured the scene in his mind. Sebastian and Nizhoni sitting on the sofa, his arm around her. It was a deep seated green cloth sofa with huge, pillow-like arm rests. When you sat down you felt like you were sinking safely into a cloud of comfort. Gramma Rose would be sitting across from them in her favorite armchair, an old, brown leather chair that matched nothing else in the whole house. Sebastian told him it was his father’s favorite armchair and his mother couldn’t get rid of it. He was sure they’d each have coffee cups in various states of full on the coffee table that was centered in the living room.

He listened as they laughed in their conversation. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before climbing