She walked in a daze of happiness. Everything was so beautiful! When she looked at the clouds, she became lost in their complex curves, discovering subtle variations and gradations of pearl grey and dazzling white. Her nostrils dilated as she tried to assimilate the various scents that drifted to her on the breeze—the salt sea, rank with rotting seaweed; the rich green smell of growing things; the occasional drift of scent as people passed her by. As she grew closer to the city streets, the grey metallic tang of vehicle exhaust mingled with the other odors. She loved all of it without judgment. It was all so real!

She skipped and stopped, ran and twirled, half-dancing, eager to drink everything in. I’m reborn, she exulted. Reborn! A new chance, a new lease on life…Then she giggled aloud at her own thoughts, which seemed silly to her. Who cared, anyway?

Still giggling, Sylvie made her wandering, halting way back down the seawall to the city streets. A hazy sense of where the Home was drew her, but she gave no thought to what the proper route might be, nor did she worry about getting lost. She could feel the Home, its location pointing her in the right direction, there. All she needed to do was wander and she would find it. She had no doubts.

A brief giddy thought slid through her awareness, as she wondered, Have I gone crazy, after all? I’m sure I look crazy! The errant thought found no purchase in her mind, however, which sparkled and fizzed with delight at the rampant newness, the vivid beauty of this day of days.

Early on, the Sylvie part of herself had worried that people would accost her and demand to know why she was behaving so strangely. Snowpepper wanted to smile at every single person she saw, insisting on dancing and skipping like a little kid, burying her nose deep in various flowers and squatting to say hello to dogs being walked on leashes attached to people.

She soon found that, without exception, the faces of the dour busy people lit up in smiles that were themselves childlike, as though Sylvie/Snowpepper carried a flame within her that ignited their own hidden joy. It was lovely to watch the happiness spreading! The people she encountered all walked away with a bounce in their gait, as though barely able to restrain the desire to skip and jump as she was doing.

Very soon Sylvie surrendered to the pure pleasure of being her own whole, real self for the first time since age three.

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