Anthony, Wolf and Robert were sitting against the fence, talking. Out of everyone – perhaps because of the sheer relief of not having been hassled by police, or because he laid claim to fewer possessions – Anthony seemed the least affected. He and Wolf had spent the night after the fire in a shelter before deciding that the shelter felt less safe than the streets and certainly less safe than the quiet of a charred car lot. So they came back to the lot to see if it had been reclaimed by the city. Finding it abandoned once again, they started over where they left off. Wolf seemed the same as he always did. The fire had reinforced the opinion he held about the world already.

When Wolf caught sight of Aria, he lifted an arm against the sky as a salute to call her over. Robert cracked a toothless smile. “How ya been?” Anthony asked her, extending an arm up from where they were sitting for her to shake. When she took it, he shook it once firmly and folded his arms again.

“Um, OK I guess. How about you guys?” Aria asked. They all chuckled as if in chorus.

“Oh, you know, life’s been better.” Robert said. They chuckled louder because of his response, which was aimed more at them than at Aria. It egged Robert on so he continued. “The good news is, I’ve been thinkin’ … people pay lots o’ money to go camp out under the stars at them national parks and we get to do it for free.” His joke was met by an uproar of laughter and it egged him on even more. “I’ve been thinkin’ about those people who go camping with RVs … It’s like they start packin’ and at some point they go … what did I forget? Oh, I know … My house!”

Again, his joke teased laughter from all of them, including himself. The way he talked, because of his missing teeth, added an additional layer to his humor. Though it lifted the mood, Aria could see that it was also his way of coping. Having lost all of his wood-whittling tools and figurines in the fire, it was obvious that he was at a loss for what to do with the hours of the day.

“Is Darren OK?” she asked, looking over at him.

“Oh, you know, he’s gettin’ on,” Robert said, conscious that in truth he wasn’t. But they could no more help him than they could help themselves.

“Where’s Luke?” Aria asked.