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Simon tells her she's lying on the floor.
It's a surprise. It felt like the wall when she put her back against it. Her feet - he says - are not on the floor, but against the door. Simon's world is so topsy-turvy. River doesn't know how he can stand it. Still, his words explain why her hair is disobeying the usual laws of gravity.
She doesn't move to get up, even though if she did she would exert 42% less effort on the movement than Mal does when he gets to his feet. She likes to think it's because she's trained to be more graceful, but she allows him fourteen newtons anyway for the age of his joints. She still wins. She always does.
She likes where she is positioned now, at a forty two degree angle from the hatch to the shuttle that used to be Inara's, her feet against the floor door, because she can look through the small window, through to the stars beyond. It's a better place now Inara is gone, because she took her curtains down and now River can see right through.
Kaylee said Inara took the curtains with her. River knows better, she left them in a trunk of stuff. Mal sometimes goes in and smells them. River knows exactly what Mal thinks, that the exotic fabric is something Inara used to wear, close to her skin. Mal inhales deep, like Inara's scent is imprinted in the fabric, even though Inara is long gone from that cloth and her scent (sweat, other various bodily fluids) has since dissipated.
She doesn't tell Mal they're just curtains. Not to save his pride. Because the words are too much effort, and she is busy counting dust motes as they sail by.