Ok, I know there were a bunch of epilogues and everything, but I couldn't just leave you all hanging. After I discovered my mom in some sort of tinker-tech life support system, I did what any red-blooded girl in my situation would do: I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. And then I called Alexandria. Yeah, having one of the leaders of the Protectorate on speed dial paid off a lot sooner than I expected. She sent out a team of experts to investigate (apparently the certificate of authenticity that was sitting on Mom wasn't something they were willing to take at face value), and it was eventually determined that Mom was the real thing, the device she was in was designed to slowly heal its occupant without doing anything funny to their mind, and the body recovered from the site of the accident was a :heart: f :heart: a :heart: k :heart: e :heart: ! I-I'm so sorry... I don't know what came over me—oh wait, yes I do—my mom is alive! Wait, what do you mean, you didn't see any hearts? What are you reading this on—a toaster? No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't device shame...
Anyway, yeah, I know the Simurgh probably caused the whole accident to begin with… but I just can't bring myself to care. The joy that Mom's back is so overpowering that the reason she was gone in the first place doesn't matter right now. And besides, the Simurgh could have just killed her and left it at that. Or maybe the accident happened naturally and she simply took advantage of it. Either way, ignoring the wonderful things to focus on the terrible is a horrible way to go through life.
Anyway, Mom's downstairs in the kitchen, and in a little while, Amy (I almost put down hearts again but managed to stop myself) will be arriving to 'give her a check up'. She told me that Carol was against the idea, saying she shouldn't have unnecessary contact with people after she's healed them. Amy responded by telling her that Mom's nice and feels like the mother she never had. She said even Mark winced at that one.
Anyway, Amy really does like Mom and Mom likes her too, which is great and means Amy's going to come over a lot in the future (especially since I'm pretty sure Mom has an idea that the two of us are a bit close…). Which means Amy will have a good reason to hang out with Taylor and not just Freakazoid!. If we ever decide that Amy should amicably (Amycably?) break up with her and start dating me, I think Emma's head will explode!
Oh, speaking of Emma, she's doing really well. We started at Thorndyke last week and have already made a few friends. I think that's helped her as much as anything else, being reminded that people who didn't already know her from before Winslow can like the real Emma. The school itself is great, too, by the way. State of the art computer labs, teachers who actually know their subjects forward and back, and students who actually want to learn. And after going to Winslow, where the kids would try to give little hints about which gangs they support with what they wear, I even kind of like that we have a uniform.
Anyway, it sounds like Amy just got here, so I've got to go. Um… you know, it's been really great talking to you—really!—but I think I'm going to be kinda busy in the future. What with having friends, going to a good school, being a hero, having a girlfriend, and having my mom back. You know, being happy. So if you don't hear from me for a while, don't freak o—ahehhehheh—I mean, don't worry. Everything is fine.