Katrina’s eyes fluttered open. She was lying on her back, staring at the cloudless pallid blue sky. It stretched over her, as if trying to reach opposite ends of the universe. As if it was endless.
Wait a minute. Where was her ceiling, with the self-adhesive glow-up stars? Where was her comfy bed?
She franticly grasped around, pulling up clumps of dry prairie grass. It crumbled beneath her fumbling fingers. Her head collapsing, she closed her eyes and tried to recollect the past seventy-two hours.
Katrina felt hot breath on her face, and heard a raspy panting. Slowly, she opened her eyes again and saw a huge furry face and blue eyes less than an inch from her nose. Scratchy whiskers brushed her cheeks.
Laughing, she sat up and ran her fingers through the husky’s coarse fur while the dog nuzzled her with its snout. “Hey Essence,” she soothed. Everything had come back to her.