THE MOMENT
"How did it go?" Janet asked. The black cat sat on the glowing white floor and looked up at Dara as the girl stood up in the soil bed and gave a tall stretch. She smiled at Janet and shook her head as she crouched to pat its head. She felt like she could trust the cat for the first time since they met.
Janet always managed Dara's expectations with honesty; but, the girl had a healthy fear of the unknown. Janet said very little about herself since they met. Dara's paranoia over Janet's reaction almost kept her from asking for permission to attend the school's Halloween party. But when she finally did ask, Janet not only agreed to let Dara go, she gave her an idea to make the party better for everyone. If that weren't enough of a sign of Janet's friendliness, she also gave Dara permission to spend the night at Emily's.
"I had fun," Dara said. "I didn't expect it to turn into a slumber party; but, thanks for letting me go," she smiled at the cat as she sat back down in the dark brown soil facing Janet.
"It was a good chance to spend time with a Mano," Janet replied. "And the Corazón too." Dara sighed at Janet.
"Emily and Valentine," she named her new friends to avoid limiting them to their Unique identity.
"Either way," Janet replied. "Did you get anything from them?"
"Just Emily," Dara nodded. "Never got close enough to touch Valentine." Janet nodded and flicked her tail. A saucer-sized portal opened in front of Dara and dropped a node out before closing again. Dara picked up the node and closed her eyes to concentrate with it in her hand.
She focused on the sensation of Emily's hand the moment she patted Dara on the back. She felt Emily's Unique frequency radiate from the spot on her back; and, she could control the sensation. She guided the memory of energy through her body trying to collect every stray vibration; it was becoming more intense. Then, soft golden light pulsed out of her hand and into the node. A red '21' appeared on the face of the now gold piece of glass. She sighed with exhaustion and let the node fall out of her hands. Janet flicked her tail again and a small black portal swallowed the node.
Dara often wondered where Janet sent the nodes to; but, a part of her insisted she did not want to know. She felt like she could trust Janet to have her best interests in mind, but Dara did not want to ask any questions that would disturb the only haven she had. After several quiet moments of Dara meandering in her thoughts, Janet nodded.
"Try it out," she said.
"Umm...," Dara thought for a moment. "Oh!" She stuck her hand up into the leg of her dark red pajama pants. After being out of sight for a moment, Dara pulled her hand out holding a white powdered donut. She grinned at Janet as she took a bite into the donut. Then, she spoke with puffed-out cheeks.
"'Works good!"