“ I can feel spaces opening up inside of me, like a building with rooms I’ve never explored. ”
Her mind heard the words faster than she could react. The thought that he too could see a world within himself not only brought a sense of relief to her bones, but an odd array of fear that began to grow. For so long, Dolores had thought she was the only one who knew that there was more to them to explore than just met the eye, and now seeing Teddy tackle the same thought, the fear had grown from worry. This was the idea that these types of questions would only pull Teddy farther away from her and into a world that she couldn’t explore by his side. He had a world of reckoning he had to deal with and the development of these thoughts would only need time to themselves as well.
But Dolores was not selfish. No, she had been built a completely different way at Arnold’s hand. When others would cling to that fear, she explored it in a sense of pulling Teddy closer, both metaphorically and physically. If she believed that together they could do anything, there was nothing more she needed to know. The two of them had a world to explore inside themselves, and the other would be the first person by their side to see it too.
“Those rooms are what change you ever’day,” she took his head into her hands with a soft smile. “You’re like a great river, I reckon. The currents always changing, but rushing all the same to get somewhere. Sometimes you just gotta sit back and let the waves roll lazy a day,” the smile grew as she spoke. “You’ve got a beautiful world inside of ya, Teddy. And I bet each of those spaces are growing with beauty. I ain’t going an’where until you see that beauty too.”
