Kristin arrived home after dark, the cooling late autumn air growing crisp as the last rays of sunshine disappeared over the rooftops. The light at the entryway to the house had been turned on. This never happened unless they were expecting a delivery at night. Kristin guessed her uncle may have felt she needed the light to draw her home. Geez, she wasn't a little kid anymore.

She took out her keys and started to unlock the door. However, her uncle must have been waiting close by as partway through the door jerked open and there he was. He had the most relieved look across his face when he saw that it was Kristin.

"Thank the stars," he started, pulling Kristin inside and wrapping his arms around her, "you've had me worried for the past few hours."

Few hours? Had it really been that long since she was sitting on the couch listening to music?

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," Kristin said, squashed in one of the biggest hugs she had received in a long time.

"Where did you go? Why didn't you pick up your phone? Are you ok?" Sam asked in rapid succession.

Kristin extricated herself from her uncle's embrace and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She noted that the screen was black and didn't respond to her attempts to wake it.

"I guess my phone must have died when I was walking back. Besides I'm not a kid anymore. Do I really need you watching over me so closely?"

Kristin could see the effect her words had on her uncle, the way his smile dropped and his shoulders drooped slightly. She felt a pang of guilt but pushed it aside. Her mind was awash with far too many thoughts for her to focus on her uncle's emotions.

"Kristin," Sam said through a sigh, "I know things aren't easy but please know that I'm always here for you to talk to."

Her uncle's sincere tone broke through some of the fog in her head. She looked up at his dark eyes, so unlike his sister's, she wondered how they were related. Those chocolate coloured orbs held so much emotion in them, she couldn't help but feel remorse.

"I'm sorry uncle Sam. I honestly don't know what happened. One minute I was sitting on the couch and the next I'm a few kilometres away."

She pulled her gaze away from her uncle, sure she would see something regrettable in his face. Kristin had all kinds of thoughts going through her head about what her uncle must be thinking. Was she more broken than he had thought when she came to live with him? Would he not want her living there?

With the feeling brought on by these questions threatening to boil over Kristin pushed past her uncle and ran up the stairs. She slammed the door closed and threw her bag on the bed, flopping down on her stomach next to it. How could her life really have gotten this messed up? Sure she had become aware of her surroundings before with no memory of getting there. However, in the past, it had never been so glaringly obvious. Another thing, what was with that dream she had gone through about a house and garden, and a drive-in movie theatre. She was sure it couldn't be more than a dream, however, something about that place, those people seemed familiar.

Kristin decided to push all of her worries and concerns aside for now. She couldn't do anything at the moment to change anything. What she did need to do was check on her school work, knowing that she had no memory of being in class. She rolled off her bed and pulled her laptop out of her bag, setting it up on her desk. Activating it she was met with her notes app open and a whole list of notes she didn't remember taking. Down the bottom was a line that was out of place with the rest of the notes, clearly written for her.

Don't worry I took all the notes I could. I don't understand all of your art terms but I hope you can make sense of this.

Alex

Kristin closed her laptop quickly, her heart racing. Why was all of this happening now? Was she finally going insane and reality was unravelling itself? Kristin took a few moments and then opened her laptop once again quickly closing the notes app. She decided she would vent her anxiety and frustration on some new character and pulled out her drawing tablet. She put her headphones in her ears pulling up her playlist and set to work.

She was unsure how long she spent drawing, however when she realised her uncle was sitting on her bed, she realised it must have been quite some time. Looking at the time on her computer showed that it had indeed been four hours. In that time she had drawn not one but two characters. Looking at them she found that she had unwittingly drawn the two people she had met in her dream, Alex and Jenny.

She put down her pen, took out her earbuds, and looked over at her uncle.

"How long have you been there?" she asked.

"Not long," Sam replied, "I didn't want to disturb you this time. Who are those characters?"

Sam was always interested in the characters that Kristin drew, she always seemed to have some kind of story for them. Kristin suspected that he was milking her for character ideas for the novels he wrote.

"They are a couple of people I met in this really weird dream I had," Kristin began, "I don't really know much about them. Their names are Alex and Jenny," pointing them out in turn.

"I see, Alex looks strong but also looks like he...?" her uncle said, pausing to confirm the pronouns of this androgynous-looking character.

"I'm not sure, I think they use they"

"Sorry, they look like they have a real caring side. And Jenny she..." Sam trailed off, his eyes resting on the image of Jenny, "...she looks like she has had the world and it rejected her."

Her uncle turned away from her, trying hard to hold back the emotions he was obviously feeling. This had been the first time he had seen Kristin draw anyone even resembling her mother. Was this a turning point for her, he wondered.

"They look really good Kristin, but why don't you take a break for now and come downstairs. I kept your dinner in the oven, it should still be alright," Sam said getting up off the bed wiping a hand over his eyes.

Kristin agreed and saved her work, following her uncle downstairs to the kitchen. Her uncle busied himself with serving up the dinner he had made the two of them, and then came and sat with Kristin while she ate. All during this Sam kept up a stead stream of chatter, going on about the latest developments in the novel he was writing and the twists that had worked their way into the story. For her part Kristin was content to sit and listen. Better her uncle's torrent of ideas than the thoughts that were swirling back into her head.

The evening ended with the two of them sharing a beer out on the back porch, staring up at the night sky. They rarely had alcohol in the house however on rare occasions Sam would bring a couple of bottles out for them. This was usually when he had things weighing on his mind and he felt a need to however slightly dull it. Kristin was likewise careful, as in the past she had quickly not remembered things and woken up with the worst hangovers.

However tonight was calm and peaceful as they sat outside in the crisp night air. Eventually, his drink finished, Sam said his goodnights to Kristin and went back inside. Kristin sat for a time by herself, enjoying the warmth of the drink inside against the cool air outside, thinking about all that had occurred today.