Nora pulled the stakes out of their nylon bag and handed one to Finn. “Do you want to help hammer in the stakes?”

She nodded.

“Here…” Nora kneeled beside the tent and fed one of the stakes through its designated loop and into the grass. “Take this.” She handed Finn a rubber mallet. “Now hit it as hard as you can.”

A wildness flashed behind Finn’s eyes, the kind children get when they’re given permission to be destructive. She squatted like a toad in front of the stake and, using both hands, struck a wobbly blow to the head of the stake. “Nice one!” Nora cheered. “I should hire you to fix the squirrel hole in the deck.” Finn beamed and pounded on the stake again, pushing it another half-inch into the red earth.

They had finished with three of the stakes and were about to start the fourth when Nora’s hands began to tremble. Not again, she thought. It had taken all her energy to get through that morning’s episode. She was worried she didn’t have the strength to do it again. “Finn, honey, just leave that stake there. I’ll finish up.”

Finn pouted. “But I want to do it.”

“I know, but I have a better idea,” Nora said, trying to keep the alarm out of her voice. “How about you and your sister go explore the campground. You can take my tape player and record some sounds for me.”

Finn considered her mother’s offer. “Okay,” she chirped, dropping the mallet on the ground and running back to the fire ring. “Zadie! Mom says we gotta go record sounds for her!”

After a little muttering to herself, Zadie closed her book and followed her sister down the trail leading to the camp office. When they were out of sight, Nora crawled into the tent, curled onto her side, and tried not to cry out. Her body felt like it was ripping in two, like the fault line of her sternum was shifting inside her and all she could do was wait and hope whatever it was didn’t kill her.

Terror gripped her as she made a tight fist around the stake in her hand. As the pain escalated, she drove the stake downward, piercing a hole in the tent floor. Through clenched teeth, she repeated to herself, “This feeling will pass. It always does.”

“Sssssh!” Finn hissed at Zadie, pressing her finger to her lips. “Quit moving around.” She held the recorder inches from a striped lizard clinging motionless to a boulder.

“It’s a lizard. It doesn’t make noise,” Zadie grunted.

Finn answered her with a quick glare, then returned her attention to the tiny reptile. A moment later, the lizard skittered down the side of the rock and disappeared into the brush. “You scared it away!”

“Are you sure it wasn’t the big black machine you were sticking in its face?”