Baptiste was still keeping watch, rigid and vigilant. She began to feel grateful to Baptiste, but when he tapped her leg again there was a rise in his voice that told her he was in this for himself. Baptiste liked to trick others. She looked up to see Baptiste rocking. He rubbed the top of his head. She could hear the whistle of his breath and when she sat up, Baptiste sidled up behind her and wrapped his arms and legs around her. Charlie had suddenly changed direction. He was moving up the hill quickly, with purpose. When he kept coming in their direction, she bucked up against Baptiste’s arms, ready to run, but Baptiste had captured her tight. “Easy,” he said to her, and she felt like he was talking to Champagne. She couldn’t stop her heart from racing. She could feel Baptiste’s voice at the nape of her neck and she strained to hear what he was saying but he was not talking to her then.

Louise watched Officer Kicking Woman as he walked a straight-line path to where they sat hidden in the weeds. He knows where we are, Louise thought and pressed the palms of her hands flat to the ground, ready to run again. Baptiste leaned his chest into her back, and snipped off a milkweed stem, split it open to white foam with his broad thumbnail. He took the watery milk and rubbed it on his hand. Charlie walked a distance away from them and then stopped. A web of grasshoppers shot up behind him. Charlie’s shoulders pulled up tight to his ears. He glanced backward for a moment so short he must have felt the muscles stretch behind his eyes.

Charlie was close. She hid her face. She did not want to see him. She could hear a crease of wind slow. Baptiste turned to her. “He cannot see you, Louise,” he said. “He is blind to us here.” Louise did not believe Baptiste. She pressed her fingers to his lips to quiet him but he kept talking. She put her hands over her head and scrunched herself down into the weeds.