“You’re not at home,” said Mara.

“It’s not a vegetable,” said Ashley.

Bullfrog ate a worm.

“That was bad,” he said. He ate another one. “Okay,” he said. “I’m set for manganese. The rest are all for you.”

They lounged and talked through the afternoon, and ate a few more worms, though there were many left over, and eventually Kyle threw the extras out the door one by one. One of the worms hit a camera and stuck to the lens. A crew member had to pick it off with his fingers, hesitant and repulsed, and Mara had rarely seen anything as funny.

She used dried nettles and herbs to make a fresh pot of tea to share. They passed it between them. The herbs were sweet, and the tea was good. Mara had not noticed the sweetness before. Her senses had started to change.

At dusk, Ashley nudged her. “Can we check the trap now?”

“No,” Mara said. “We should do it in the morning. Then we can do it in daylight. You should be the one to check.” She knew Ashley would like that. “Besides, the fish are more likely to swim in at night.”

It came easily, the lie, and Mara hardly noticed until she had already told it. The truth was that she didn’t want to move. And what if there were no fish in the trap yet? She wanted to make sure that the first time they checked, it was successful. And anyway, right now they were happy. They didn’t need fish right now.

The strange thing about hunger was that after waiting for so long, it didn’t seem like a big deal to wait a little more. What was one more night with empty stomachs? Mara didn’t want to leave the shelter, with Ashley warm against her skin. She didn’t want to break the day.

15

Mara slept heavy, heavier than since she had first arrived, and woke to her name, to Ashley’s voice.

“Mara.” Shaking her shoulder. Had she and Ashley spooned all night? Kyle and Bullfrog were still asleep, and the fire had sunk low, but there was new wood on the glowing coals. Ashley had been up to tend it. She was getting better with fire.

It was the kind of gray morning that would burn clear by noon, with mist on the lake, white and swirling. Ashley took Mara’s hand, and Mara let her lead. She knew where they were going. But she would have let Ashley lead her anywhere. They scrambled down the bank to the lakeshore.

In the trap were two perch.

Swishing their tails, almost dreamy. As if they did not know they were trapped, or if they did, they didn’t mind; as if they lived there now. Waiting to be found. One perch was about seven inches long, and the other quite large, maybe ten or eleven inches. Mara noticed a few crumbs from the protein bar sunk to the bottom mud, but they were subtle. She didn’t think anyone else would notice.