At the end, Luna curled up under Beckett’s arm and a second later he yawned loudly.
“You need more sleep.”
“Just a little more. I’ll get up soon.”
Chapter 29
Hours later Beckett slowly climbed out of sleep to look around. The bed was warm, yet Luna’s side was empty. Luna’s side. They had spent the night together in a bed, with bedding. It had been comfortable and also unbelievable. Sleeping beside her had been so ordinary in a story that had been so extraordinary he had a nagging worry that it wouldn’t-couldn’t continue so normally.
But didn’t Beckett have nagging feelings all the time? Fears and anxieties rattled around in his — where did Luna go? Was she eating breakfast? He checked the nightstand, his grandfather’s watch lay there. He glanced at the time — 2:47. He stared at it for a while, trying to make sense of it. 2:47? That was pm. Most of a whole day gone. It was pouring rain outside. At least they would all be home.
He jerked up and pulled on his sweat pants, stretched, and headed straight for the bathroom. He looked much better, though too thin, too exhausted, but so much better than he imagined he must have looked yesterday, when he stumbled into the yard the first time, raging, or when he returned last night, soggy and worn completely out.
He took a piss, brushed his teeth and then, even though he was so hungry his stomach lining was threatening to eat his own liver, he jumped into the shower, because he supposed he owed it to everyone and also, warm water.
He might take five of these today. In the remaining five hours of today.
When he stepped out of the bathroom door, a little puppy attacked his ankles. He crouched down and it rolled over on its back and wiggled its feet in the air for pets and whimpered adoringly. He said, “Hello stranger, wonder when you started living in my home?”
He lumbered across the living room to the kitchen where the light was on. Dilly was washing dishes and dropped her dishtowel when he entered. “Beckett, good morning!”
Chickadee bustled around the counter to her laptop, flipped over a piece of paper, and shoved it under a pile. She tried to do it nonchalantly. She said, “Good morning!” With an exuberant brightness in her voice, but she couldn’t cover it up, she was hiding something —
“What’s on the paper Chickadee, are you planning presents for me?”
“Oh nothing, just paperwork—”
Luna stepped through the back door, soggy, wet through. She stomped her muddy boots and then sat to tug them off. “You’re up! Good morning Sleepyhead.”
“Good morning, babe.” He moved across the kitchen to kiss her good morning. The puppy chewed on Beckett’s ankles. Beckett turned back to Chickadee, “Something to do with the house, the land, or me?” Shark chomped down hard. Beckett asked, “Everyone can see this dog, right? It’s not a figment of my imagination?”
Luna laughed. “That’s Shark, Chickadee got him as a replacement when you didn’t come home right away.”
Beckett chuckled, looked down at the puppy growling at his foot. “It’s cuter than me for sure.”
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Chickadee grab the stack of papers she had hidden earlier, put them under her arm and look around distracted. Then she seemed to notice Beckett watching her. “Beckett did you meet the puppy?”
Beckett squinted his eyes, “Yeah, and hey Chickadee, we should talk about all the things you've got to tell me about, huh?”
“Who us? Need to talk? No, um, but I do need to go see Roscoe about something.” And with that Chickadee stalked out of the house.
Also by H D Knightley
Violet’s Mountain
Sid and Teddy
Bright (Book One of the Estelle Series)
Beyond (Book Two of the Estelle Series)
Belief (Book Three of the Estelle Series)
Fly: The Light Princess Retold
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Isobel Dowdee for being my story editor, advisor, and for loving the story. Your thoughts and ideas made it better and better.
And thank you to Kevin for being my resident paddleboarding advisor. Watching you paddle from Catalina to Manhattan Beach inspired me to create this whole world.
And to my kids, for giving me the space and time and love to finish these labors of love.
And finally, thank you to my mother, Mary Jane Knight Cushman, she was a hopeful soul and taught me if the waters rise to grab a paddle.
About the Author
I love weaving tales about characters who are in way over their head. People faced with huge environmental issues—light-polluted skies, droughts, piles of hoarded things, encroaching water—who rise above and carry on, anyway. I like a story in which everything is a disaster, yet they kiss in the end, so it’s all good.
My characters are not perfectly strong, more like creatively ordinary, yet capable of amazing things. They include Estelle (The Estelle Series) who becomes a celebrity dissident for starting a farm, the Princess Amelia (Fly: The Light Princess Retold) who discovers gravity and rescues her kingdom from a drought, Edmund who scales heights to rescue Violet (Violet’s Mountain) the paddleboarder Luna (Leveling) who finds love, shelter, and possible disaster at the edge of a rising ocean, and Sid and Teddy (Sid and Teddy: When You’ve Loved Someone Since Forever) who find each other through a fog of grief.
I live in my head most of the time, but in Los Angeles the rest.
@hdknightley
hdknightley
www.hdknightley.com
[email protected]
Leveling 5: When Water Has Overtaken Land: Episode 5: The Road Home (Leveling: Season One) Page 8