I skipped straight from hindsight to foresight, checking to see where Bella and Edward were now. To my surprise, the vision divided; they weren't together? But then I saw why: Bella was eating dinner with her dad, Charlie. Well, I say eating, scoffing might have been a better word. I smirked at her eagerness to return to Edward, but my teasing attitude was overlaid with real affection towards my newest sister. I watched Charlie for a while, noting his comfortable demeanour and his fondness towards his daughter. I didn't know much about Charlie Swan besides his name, job and of course his relationship to Bella. Thanks to Bella, I now also knew where he lived, and that was about it. I hoped for Bella's sake that they weren't too close; it would only make it more difficult for her to change.
Whilst Bella ate, Edward explored Bella's room. He had never been in here without Bella before. Evidently he had never looked around; maybe he was afraid to wake her. Maybe he just couldn't look away from her.
The only furniture was the bed, a desk with a decrepit computer and a rocking chair, the same chair from which my brother watched Bella every night. The walls were a pale blue – a bit cold for such a small room, I thought. Esme would've chosen something different or added an accent colour. The only curtains were faded netting, yellowing with age. Charlie obviously hadn't changed anything about Bella's room for a long time. The bedspread, in contrast to the walls, was a sunny yellow like the cupboards in the kitchen below, though it too was faded. I decided that this had not been Bella's idea – she seemed to favour earthy colours, blues and greens and browns – but more likely Renée's. Charlie didn't strike me as a man to take an interest in interior design – the curtains proved that – or to fuss about the colour of his daughter's duvet. That got me wondering how much of an impact Renée would have on Bella's life in Forks, whether they kept in contact often and generally how close they were. I hoped the family wasn't as close knit as it seemed, and took comfort from the obvious age of the duvet.
The room was relatively bare, you could tell she hadn't lived here long, but there were a few personal touches here and there. A photo of Renée, I assumed, was on her desk by her computer. Renée had the same thick hair as Bella, but it was much lighter, dyed multiple times. I supposed Renée was more conventionally beautiful than Bella, with delicate blue eyes and darker skin, but if they had lived back in Edward's time, Bella's pale skin would have been prized. Edward (and I) glanced round the room, but there were no photos of Bella. I made a mental note to correct that at some point.
A bookshelf lined the wall above her bed. Every single book had obviously been read more than once, from the creases running down their spines. The books that looked the most well-loved were generally classics: Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, a large collection of Shakespeare – Bella evidently liked the old-fashioned romances. Now that was the loveliest piece of irony had ever had the good fortune to come across.
Next Edward's attention drifted to the small pile of CDs at the end of the shelf. He ran his fingers across the cases, reading the names of the artists. It was an eclectic mix, ranging from rock to a single classical CD – Debussy, I noted. I guessed Bella had packed one or two CDs from each genre to take from Phoenix. She had an open mind in other things then, not just accepting vampires.
Annoyingly, Edward declined the opportunity to search Bella's closet. Since I had never seen it before, it would be hard to look for it now, so I didn't bother trying. Anyway, I doubted Bella possessed any clothes worth my attention, judging by what she wore to school each day. Did she own any trousers other than jeans?
Anyhow, Edward turned back to the bed, and lay down on top of the covers. He buried his face in the pillow, inhaling the scent of her. For a moment, I was shocked: was he trying to torment himself? Then I realised he had fallen in love with her scent just because it was part of her.
For a vampire, the sense of smell tells us almost everything. We could probably survive blind and deaf, just by relying on our noses, though what kind of life would that be? It also provokes the most intense reactions in us: the desire to feed, obviously, but other, more pleasurable desires too. Every vampire and every human smell unique and a 'love at first smell' relationship, as I had teased Edward with earlier, was actually far more common among immortals than 'love at first sight'. Emmett and Rosalie were an exception whilst Jazz and I were half and half. He smelt me before he saw me, but of course I saw him long before I smelt him. It didn't stop me falling in love with the amazing scent he exuded as soon as it reached my nostrils. And the smell of him when he wanted me had such an intense effect…
I shivered, and drew away from the vision. Esme, curled up against Carlisle, had pulled out a notebook and was sketching the design plan of another room. I looked ahead to the finished design and saw the title in Esme's soft italic handwriting, neatly underlined: "Edward's room, Alaska". Alaska had been decided a few weeks ago as our next stop on our continual journey, and we had been planning to move early next year since Carlisle was beginning to look far too young for his supposed age. The date of the move had become sketchy now; Bella had unwittingly changed our plans.
Most of the family had different themes to their rooms in different houses – mine and Jasper's Alaskan room was a beautiful shade of lilac – but Edward's rooms were invariably black and gold. I sometimes wondered if he was reminding himself of our lifestyle with the reference to our eye colour. What for, I had no idea? Penance for his rebellious years? He had never cared to enlighten me, but maybe I was reading too much into it. Though with Edward, it was very rarely possible to read too much into anything.
The main design on Edward's new room was similar to the existing one, but the black that had contrasted with the gold was replaced here with a pale blue. I smiled in appreciation – Esme had a great eye for colour, and this palette reminded me of a sunrise, a perfect metaphor for Edward's life right now. Esme had never seen Bella's room, but it would remind Bella of home, too. The other prominent change was the addition of a large bed to the centre of the room. I wondered briefly if Edward would be upset that Esme was assuming Bella would be living with us – him – but I supposed that it was fairly innocent. She hadn't, after all, specified what the bed was for: sleeping or… not.
Drawing my mind back to my body, I looked up at Esme and beamed at her. "It's beautiful, Esme. I'm sure they'll love it."
Esme smiled with me. "I hope so," she said.
I tapped my temple. "Trust me, they will," I said lightly.
My mother laughed gently and returned to her sketching. Carlisle stroked her soft caramel hair as she worked.