07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

Bonnie’s head came up. “Even that would be okay for the baby,” she said, with a sudden
smile, like a rainbow after a storm.
“Oh, yes, isn’t she adorable? I never saw such a happy baby. Margaret used to just look
at you with big eyes. Adara—if she is Adara—should have such a happy life…”
Stefan settled back against the headboard. Elena had the situation in hand.
Now he could worry about where Damon was going. After a moment he tuned back in, to
find Bonnie talking about treasure.
“And they kept asking me and asking me and I couldn’t figure out why since the star ball
with the story on it was right there. Only the story is gone now—Damon checked. Shinichi was going
to throw me out the window, and that was when Damon rescued me, and the Guardians asked me
about the story too.”
“Strange,” Stefan said, sitting up alertly. “Bonnie, tell me how you first felt this story;
where you were and all.”
Bonnie said, “Well, first I saw a story about a little girl named Marit going to buy a
sugarplum—that was why I tried to do the same thing the next day. And then I went to bed, but I
couldn’t sleep. So then I picked up the star ball again and it showed me the story about the kitsune
treasures. The stories are shown in order, so it had to be the one right after the sweetshop story. And
then suddenly I was out of my body, and I was flying with Elena right over Alaric’s car.”
“Did you do anything in between experiencing the story and going to bed?” Stefan asked.
Bonnie thought; her rosebud mouth pursed. “I suppose I turned down the gas lamp. Every
night I would turn the lamp way down so that it was only a flicker.”
“And did you turn it back up again when you couldn’t sleep and reached for the star ball
again?”
“Um…no. But they’re not books! You don’t have to see to experience a story.”
“That wasn’t what I meant. How did you find the star ball in that dim room? Was it the
only star ball on the floor near you?”
Bonnie’s brows came together. “Well…no. There were twenty-six. Two others were
hideous; I’d kicked those into a corner. Twenty-five were soap operas—so boring. It’s not as if I had
shelves or anywhere else to put them—”
“Bonnie, do you want to know what I think happened?”
Bonnie blinked and nodded.
“I think that you read a children’s story and then you went to bed. And you actually fell
asleep very quickly, even though you dreamed you were awake. Then you dreamed a premonition—”
Bonnie groaned. “Another one of those? But there wasn’t even anyone to tell it to then!”
“Exactly. But you wanted to tell it to someone, and that longing brought you—your spirit
—to where Elena was. But Elena was so worried about getting word across to Alaric that she was
having an out-of-body experience. She’d been asleep too, I’m sure of it.” Stefan looked at Elena.
“What do you think of that?”