Shane accepted that; she had two reasons for doing so. In the first place, she didn’t feel very good, in the past few days she had almost no sleep, nor any nourishment, and her body was suffering from that. Secondly, the comforting sensation – as if she was really home. She could not deny it; she felt pretty good.

Her mother asked her to accept her offer to sleep in her bedroom.

“My bed is real comfortable…here is the bathroom, TV, audio system, CDs. I don’t think it is so bad at all. I will sleep in a chair in the living room. If you need anything let me know.”

Trying to sleep was hard work…as in the previous nights, her memory awakened and that song on the radio made the memories come back more intensely. After six in the morning, after crying and silently questioning her decisions about Carmen, she did it.

She awakes, looks at the clock -it is three in the afternoon; the radio is still on. She takes a look at the room, checks the CDs, decides to take a bath.

Her mother is in the living room, seated at the table reviewing a pile of papers. She came down the stairs, Julia sees her.

Julia says, smiling: “And finaly the Sleeping Beauty awakes”.

“Yes, I was able to sleep -a little.” Shane says, walks in and sits beside Julia.

“A little?Julia says, “It’s 3:30 in the afternoon. You can’t sleep,Imsomnia?”

Shane is unsure: “Yes…”.

“Are you hungry?”Julia asks .

“Yes, a little.”

Julia gets up and goes into the kitchen. She returns with a carafe: “This coffee may be a little strong; if you don’t like it I can make you some milder.”

“No, no – its OK, I drink it this way, too”Shane says and asks, “Brownies?”.

“I made them this morning, I thought that maybe you like them”.

All seemed perfect. Julia continued with her papers; Shane watched her in silence.”What are you doing?,”Shane asked at last.