I bit into one of the cookies, too, and made a hum of approval. They were good. It was strange, in a nice way, how different things tasted when they were homemade. For individuals instead of vast quantities. I hadn't had a lot of that before.

I still wonder if Tommy was my soulmate. We could barely prove we had souls to Madame and Miss Emily and the powers above that decided our fates, but whatever I felt for him was unrivalled. I just didn't know, don't know, if it finding the other part of your soul was supposed to ache like it did. I still don't know if what pushed us together was our tragic fate, or loneliness, the sheer fact there were so few others.

I don't think so. I know that I loved him. I know that I still do. "I'm sure you will," I said. It was hard to imagine a world in which somebody like Sookie didn't get to have a happy ending. I've said it before, but she was just so lovely.