Gaia said, keeping her eyes low as she poured her third bowl of Froot Loops. Thank God Ed was always fully stocked on Froot Loops, because they were just about her only solace right now, after that ludicrous freak-out with Ed’s door. Obviously she’d been way too optimistic about the sudden disappearance of her symptoms. After all, it wouldn’t be her life if it was that easy. She tried to do her own little therapy session in her head while Ed toasted himself an everything bagel. The best she could come up with was this: It was kind of like someone who’d been blind their whole life regaining their sight. Or a deaf person getting one of those cochlear implants. The shapes must look so totally insane to the blind person at first. The sounds must be so loud to the deaf person. If you’d grown up only knowing nothing, wouldn’t even the smallest thing seem like too much? At least at first? That had to be what was happening with her fear response. Gaia was so unaccustomed to being startled that now everything was startling.
