- DEX -
By the time I get to the hospital, Raya still hasn't texted me back. I put my truck in park and sit there, wondering if I shouldn't wait until I hear from her. She may be resting. She may have visitors.
"Raya asked me to come," I remind myself. She said she has something important to tell me.
The woman at the desk asks for my name and gives me Raya's room number, and I proceed down the hallways in search of it, trying not to think about how every time I'm in a hospital, it reminds me of my mother. A few nurses passing in the opposite direction smile.
Finally, I come to the right door: room 428. It's cracked ajar, and suddenly I'm back in that singular dream again, approaching the bedroom door in that mysterious apartment before the cat slips in ahead of me. I glance at my feet as if one might appear out of thin air.
I knock gently. "Auraya?"
