真心半解--同人文(9)

One of the shadows is shaped like a water lily. Her mother loved water lilies, said they reminded her of Xuzhou, painted them everywhere. When Ellie was thirteen, she had tossed all those
paintings into a box at the back of their storage closet to make sure her dad wouldn't see them. Somehow, it's this memory that finally breaks the floodgates, and she starts sobbing
uncontrollably. She buries her face in her pillow in an attempt to quell the choking noises that she can't appear to contain, but Laurel does not stir. Thank God for small mercies, she thinks to herself wildly, and then snorts a wild laugh in the middle of a sob. She's thanking a God she doesn't even believe in.

It's a long time before the tears dry out and she falls into a restless sleep. She dreams of trains
running over her mother's paintings as her and her dad desperately run after the trains
themselves. They're trying to catch someone. When they reach the right train, the paintings are
destroyed but her mother catches her arm and pulls her into the safety of the compartment. Her
eyes are bright and full of laughter as she puts a palm on Ellie's cheek and kisses her forehead.