Freaking out when Jo opens the door. You mean we get our own bathroom? and Jo saying, Leni, have you seriously never stayed in a motel before? Leni twirls. Nope. Jo rolls her eyes. Hillbilly. Erik asks what they want for dinner and FKK says, Pizza!! and when he looks confused Jo pulls a bottle of hot sauce from her bag and says, No cheese. They sit on FKK’s bed and when the pizza comes Jo demonstrates how to prepare it: a capful of garlic sauce, then a thick squiggle of hot sauce. Folding a slice for a huge bite. Oil dripping into her cupped hand. Erik skeptical but eats three pieces. Scanning the pay-per-view movies, to Xie’s relief no jokes about the porn options. They settle on Terminator and Erik sits in the chair, despite FKK’s protest. There’s room on the bed, Leni insists. I’m fine, he says. Karen at the very bottom, legs tucked, head on her arm. Xie in the middle. After the movie they play cards, Xie teaching the bastardized version of Rook he and his father invented. Leni yawning through the instructions. This is taking way too long. No, just pay attention, it’s worth it once you get it. Karen playing impeccably. Taking trick after trick. Erik exclaiming, Goddamn it. Her wry grin. Leni making piles of cards according to her own rules. Jo snatching them up, elbowing Leni to the corner of the bed. Let the grown-ups play. Some discussion about what Jo’s parents do, the business they own, water purification, Karen knowing someone who knows Jo’s dad. What do you want to do when you graduate? she asks. Jo shrugs. What I’m doing. Work for the environment. Tipping her bottle of natural cola to her teeth. So no water filtration sales for you? Hell, no. Erik tilting back in the chair, arms crossed behind his head, biceps hard below the sleeve of his shirt. Jo opening a window to smoke and Karen takes a cigarette from her, elbow to elbow as they tap ash down on the concrete below. Hips out. Erik catching Xie’s eye. Smiles. You almost ready for bed? Yeah. Gathering up the boxes and napkins. He had covered the body with branches, stones holding down the sheets, you just. Have to trust. That it exists and will go on existing. You get some rest, Erik says to the girls, and they nod. Night Mr. Lauridsen, night Xie, night Karen, night Jo, night Leni.

Long dream of the body, of that space between rib cage and spine, slightly electric when you enter it, feeling the bones from the inside; it always makes you come. Xie’s mouth wet against the pillow, Erik snoring in the bed beside him. Not yet dawn beyond the curtains. Sore all over from the soft mattress, he hasn’t slept so far from the floor in years. He rolls onto his back. Two hours before the alarm goes off. Imagine. The grid of the woods against the ceiling, your own dark head dead center. To make up for tonight, for the next night, you will do twice as many trees. Count them. Mark them now. You don’t lose track, you keep them all right there, in your mind, in their thousands, the only math that matters. You don’t even need the light from P. to see them. Your hands go from trunk to trunk without a single error. Even though they crack, splinter, groan, though it hurts them, you know how much stronger they will be. A drop of poison to hold back a sea. Bodies that can break blades, send the darkness running, cut the nightmare to pieces.