Chapter 8
Grace
I clutched my head while the world circled away from me. I felt as though I tripped down a flight of stairs and I fell, weightlessly, through a vortex—an all-consuming confusion where I forgot my own name. I tumbled down—down, down, down, forever and ever, until the spiraling stopped and my body ached with the collision. I opened my eyes, then closed them again until everything stopped spinning. I stretched out my arms to gather my balance and managed to stand upright, but barely. Everywhere around me was sparse, rural beauty, a panorama of wide, open spaces.
My muscles spasmed until I was ready to heave. I bent over, my hands on my knees. I tried to settle my breath while I gasped for air. I shuddered but I wasn’t cold, and I felt so airy I wasn’t sure I had a body. But
