SORRY FOR THE DELAY, though I don't suppose you'd notice on a recording. My nimble-fingered brother dropped the microphone into a pit full of...oh, never mind. Back to the story. Carter woke with such a start, he banged his knees against the drinks tray, which was quite funny. "Sleep well?" I asked. He blinked at me in confusion. "You're human." "How kind of you to notice." I took another bite of my pizza. I'd never eaten pizza from a china plate or had a Coke in a glass (with ice no less--Americans are so odd) but I was enjoying first class. "I changed back an hour ago." I cleared my throat. "It--ah--was helpful, what you said, about focusing on what's important." Awkward saying even that much, as I remembered everything he'd told me while I was in kite form about his travels with Dad--how he'd gotten lost in the Underground, gotten sick in Venice, squealed like a baby when he'd found a scorpion in his sock. So much ammunition to tease him with, but oddly I wasn't tempted. The way he'd poured out his soul...Perhaps he thought I didn't understand him in kite form--but he'd been so honest, so unguarded, and he'd done it all to calm me down.
