Matt had fallen over and hadn’t gotten up. Had Nathan hit him? She thought it was the heavy blows from the words, not from her father’s fists, that had sent him to the ground.

She’d been watching from behind one of the tents, the tent where Jennifer and her baby had lain, both of them pretending to sleep so they wouldn’t have to face Nathan. Jennifer had even kept her eyes shut when the soldiers carried her to the car.

When Matt fell over, Sonia stood like the witless lump her father often called her. It was like the day in the lab all over again. The memory made her hot with shame and finally gave her strength to move over to him. I will heal him, and he will be forever grateful. Jennifer isn’t moving, she doesn’t really care. How beautiful is my beloved.

Her heavy legs, she walked like a polar bear, maybe she’d been half transformed when Stu and Larry played polar bear with her. She’d never grown fur or big protective claws and teeth, had acquired only the lumbering, uncertain gait of a bear on its hind legs.

She’d flung herself on Matt, hadn’t she? Sonia rolled so that she blocked Jenny’s view. The Magpie appeared from nowhere, and then Nathan, crazy with fury, came back. Fury with her or the Magpie or both of them? A baby was crying. Magda was telling Nathan he had to do something about the baby.

Sonia looked up from Matt’s body. She found her polar-bear voice and growled, Nathan doesn’t have tits, you ignorant bitch! He can’t nurse a baby, and he for sure never changed a diaper in his life, so don’t expect him to look after a baby for you!

She bent over Matt to give him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but the Magpie pulled her away, screaming in bird talk, and Nathan joined her, the two of them yanking on Sonia’s arms, dragging her away from her beloved. She went limp, the way the protesters did at the silo, and Nathan let go of her. Dusted his hands: I’m washing my hands of you.

Nathan strode away, got back in his car, but the Magpie kept hopping around, looking for treasures. Sonia saw the movie, but the soldiers were arguing with the Magpie, so no one else was watching.

The soldiers left, the Magpie left, no one paid attention to Sonia, lying on the ground with her arms around Matt, his blood oozing onto her breasts—we are joined now for eternity, we are blood brother and sister. She heard a baby crying, but it seemed so far away and she was too heavy to move.