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Ehud flung himself at Colma to hug her.  She embraced him back and laughed as he exclaimed, “You’re not dead!”   Suddenly, though, she was aware of what felt like rain-drops spotting her shoulder.  Surprised, she glanced up and discovered that Ehud was trying, yet failing, to hold in tears.

“S-sorry…I’m sorry..” he gasped, obviously attempting to control his small gulpng sobs.

Colma’s first impulse was to withdraw herself.  Whenever it came to being emotionally vulnerable, she always cringed inside.  It had been her personal rule to disengage herself from as much intimacy as possible.  But now she found she couldn’t do it.  Ehud had been there when she had lost it and broke down, and he had tried to comfort her.  Now it was her turn to help him.  Perhaps Ehud had seen those awful vision-things before they were transported to the roof as well.

But she didn’t know how to be console people.  Colma, who had previously loosened her grip when he started crying, tightened her hug, still wondering what to say.

Colma held him for a moment more, allowing his tear drops to plop onto her shoulder, before she looked at him at arm’s length.  “I’m sorry,” she repeated.  “You don’t have to only be there for others, to be the one who pretends nothing’s wrong.  I can be there for you, too.  And I’m also sorry for…” her throat tightened and the words dried up in her throat.  Colma considered stepping back and not continuing, but she forged ahead with what she was saying.  “And I’m sorry for lying to you.  My name’s not Calixta.  It’s Colma.  I lied because… because I’ve–I’ve done some bad things–really bad things– and I was afraid you would recognize my name.  But now I think–” she swallowed– “I know you’ll think I’m crazy, but I think that we may be from different worlds.  I’ve never even heard of a ‘gun,’ but Erin has one, and you seem to know what it is.”  Colma didn’t know why she told him the truth or voiced her opinion, but she felt that it was only right to be straight with Ehud.  But now she must be just another one of the people who had lied to him.  What if he hated her now?  “I’m sorry,” she repeated, a tinge of desperateness in her voice.  “I never should’ve lied…”  And Colma was truly regretful.

Ehud had seemed to like her, and now she’d ruined it, like she ruined every relationship she’d ever had.  “I’m sorry.”

Colma heard the fox saying something.  She did a double-take.  The fox could talk?  In fairness, thought Colma, dragons can talk in my world, like griffins.  Maybe it’s not so strange.  But did that mean all foxes could speak?  She made a mental note to ask the fox after she saw Ehud’s reaction to the truth.