“You realy wanna talk about this?” I groaned and leaned my head on the back of the couch.

“Right now, there’s nothing else I’d like to talk to about.”

“You’re in for a real disappointment,” I said. “Because there’s nothing to tel.”

“It was that bland?” she asked.

“No, it was nothing,” I said. “And I mean literaly nothing. We didn’t do anything.”

“Wait.” She leaned back on the couch, as if to look at me better. “You mean that you’re married and stil a virgin?”

“That is what I mean.”

“Wendy!” Wila gasped.

“What? Our marriage is weird. Realy weird. You know that.”

“I know.” She looked disappointed. “I was hoping you could have a happily ever after is al.”

“Wel, it’s not ever after yet,” I pointed out.

“Wendy!” Matt yeled from outside the house. “I need your help with something!”

“Duty cals.” I stood up.

“That was barely even a minute,” Wila said. “You do need to take a break, Wendy. You’re running yourself ragged.”

“I’m fine,” I said as I walked out of the house. “I’l sleep when I’m dead.”

We worked wel into the night. We ended up getting most of the big debris cleared out and piled up. I might have pressed on to do more work for the night, but it was clear that everybody else couldn’t.

“I think we need to cal it a night, Wendy,” Loki said. He rested his arms on an overturned refrigerator, leaning on it.

Matt and Wila were sitting on a log next to the pile, and Tove stood next to them, drinking a bottle of water. Only Duncan stil helped me as we struggled to pul a shredded mattress from a tracker house. I had to stop using my powers, because it kiled my head every time I did.

Only three streetlights in the entire town stil worked, and Matt, Wila, Tove, and Loki had taken their break by one. They’d stopped working about fifteen minutes ago, but I insisted that I keep going.

“Wendy, come on,” Matt said. “You’ve done as much as you can do.”

“There’s more stuff to do, so clearly I haven’t,” I said.

“Duncan needs a break,” Wila said. “Let’s quit. We can do more tomorrow.”

“I’m fine,” Duncan panted, but I stopped puling on the mattress long enough to look up at him. He was filthy and haggard. I’d actualy never seen him look so terrible.

“Fine. We’re done for the night,” I relented.

We walked back over and sat down on the log next to Matt and Wila. She had a smal cooler of water and handed a bottle to each of us. I opened it and drank it greedily. Tove paced in front of us, fidgeting with his bottle cap, and I don’t know how he had the energy to walk that much.