Each day since adding Kama to the model, she had gone down and added other names that she found printed in the papers. She hadn’t decided to do this, had simply found herself drifting over and over towards the basement darkness. Once down there, she opened the Citizen on her phone and found the names, addresses.

This morning she flipped on the basement light and saw right away that something was different on the model. She stepped closer. A strange green mold was growing on the foam. Right around their little gold monopoly house.

It made her sad—she didn’t want any signs of decay down here. She grabbed a napkin from Brendon’s supplies and wiped the mold away.

The next day it was back, a persistent little algae on the ground around the house and a little bit at the base of the toy building. She told herself basements are damp, it made sense there would be mold. It was a small problem. She had big ones to attend to.

chapter eight: Food

Autumn came in shocks, the temperature dropping as if slipping down a stair, recovering itself into some balance, and then slipping again on the next step. It had been such a sticky summer, and the heat didn’t seem ready to release the city, sliding back in after each cold snap, a lover returning for one more kiss.

This was usually Dune’s favorite season, all the sunlight that had poured into the city through the summer months would soon show out as the treetops went to blaze, ginkgo lighting up into sun-bright golden spheres, burnt red spreading across maple and pear leaves in fractal fires; the rainbow of leaves covering cars and yards.

It was the best season to bike or drive on the roads of Detroit. In the winter there was sleet and soiled snow in car catching piles, hidden potholes. In the spring the city sent teams out to fill the holes, but they moved at the pace of bureaucracy and the roads were still treacherous. In the summer the holes were filled, but these days it got so hot that the road seemed to ripple underneath each wheel. Finally, fall arrived. It was cool enough to be outside and the roads were as smooth as they would ever be. And the perilous children, who biked in zigzags and darted into the street for bouncy balls, they were all in school.