Chapter 59

She woke up choking for air, strangling. When she opened her eyes she saw it was only that she was tangled in the pale green silk bedspread. She had neglected to turn it down the night before. A trail of drool left a dark pool on its edge. She hoped it would dry unnoticed so she wouldn’t have to take it to the dry cleaner. But the concern was quickly forgotten with awareness of her blinding headache. She considered whether it was worth the trouble of going to the bathroom and hunt for ibuprofen.

It was. Naked, she climbed out of the bed, head down, and a hand shielding her eyes from the sunlight streaming in through a gap in the vertical blinds. After stumbling, she remembered the three carpeted steps leading down from the raised platform where the circular bed perched. Gingerly, she made her way to the bathroom. The reflection of her face in the mirror changed her opinion about the ibuprofen, and she took an Oxycodone from its orange prescription vial instead. Groping the dark wood paneled walls of the hallway, she felt her way to the kitchen, swigging down the pill with a mouthful of flat sparking wine from a bottle she didn’t remember opening, and left overnight on the counter. Then she made her way back to the bed, covering her head with the stained, pale green bedspread.

Twenty minutes later, the warm, lightheaded feeling with a twinge of nausea arrived. She was ready to face another day.

Still naked, this time she remembered the three shallow stairs and stepped onto the shag wall-to-wall carpeting. She didn’t open the blinds, instead creating a space for herself between the vertical strips in front of the glass to gaze at the view.

The west wall of the room was glass with a sliding door opening onto a patio of aggregated stone. The patio formed a half-circle around the house. Beyond was an expansive view of the Pacific Ocean shrouded in the low-lying fog known as June gloom. By sight alone she understood the weather was mild and the fog would burn off by afternoon. The ocean was placid grey. “Grey, the color of the day,” she crooned, like a child singing a nursery rhyme.

Silhouetted against the sea’s brightness, a life-sized bronze sea lion stood at attention, as if barking at an intruder. The sea lion was some kind of local celebrity with a familiar name like Ed, or Bud or something. The house’s owner made the sculpture. She tried to remember: The owner was a movie producer, or something; she couldn’t remember what the property manager had told her.

She turned and faced the room, its focal point the elevated, pale green circular bed. She had never seen a circular bed. She wondered where she could find a circular bedspread to replace the one she had stained. Maybe on Amazon. The bed brought to mind Old Hollywood glamour. Or maybe it just reminded her of a bedroom in an old Hollywood movie. That’s probably more like it.

The bed rested against the wall. Above, a shelf of teak and glass defied gravity. The little bit of Kris that was still a nurse thought hanging something so heavy above a bed in earthquake prone California foolishly dangerous. She imagined it crashing down on sleeping victims. On it sat a Danish-modern vase, and a small ceramic bull.

A circular bed on a circular platform, a circle within a circle.

Strewn over the floor of the room, her clothes defied its sense of order.