Kell shrugged, not wanting to explain it out loud. That the only time he showered was when he was in the same time slot as Bede because in prison, the showers were dangerous and echoed with slaps and shouts.
“Out loud, please,” said Gabe, ever-patient.
“Sunday,” he said, his voice low, not quite wincing as Gabe’s eyebrows flew up. And it was easy to see that Gabe didn’t understand why the delay, not in the least.
“I’ll take him,” said a voice, and when Kell turned, he saw it was Marston, stepping down from the wooden platform. During each dinner, he’d made sure Kell had milk to drink, a quart all for himself, but other than gesturing to the glass container to make sure Kell had seen it, he’d not said anything. Or smiled.
He wasn’t smiling now, but his head was a little to the side, as if he was trying to make himself smaller, less imposing.
“Sometimes the woods are dark,” Marston said now. “And it helps to have a little company.”
Kell had to swallow hard. It wasn’t exactly something Bede would have said, but the intention behind it was so like Bede, and suddenly Kell missed him so much, the world was let in amidst the darkening night, the woods all around, the clean-smelling breeze that floated around them as they stood in front of the mess tent.
An auto-light blazed from one corner of the mess tent, but it only seemed to bring into focus the dense, unknowable woods all around.
Kell had been on many a train as it shambled along through empty countryside where anything could lurk, and while he’d gotten used to it, those fears came back to him now, simply because Marston had offered to look out for him while he took a shower.
“My tent’s right here,” said Marston, a little gesture of his head to point the direction. “Then we can stop at your tent. Okay?”
“Thanks, Marston,” said Gabe with a nod, and then he was walking off into the darkness in the direction of the lake.
“You’ve been missing the campfires at night,” said Marston as he led the way to his tent amidst the grasses and long shadows cast by the auto-light.
“Campfires?” asked Kell.
He waited on the wooden platform in front of Marston’s tent while Marston went in, turned on his light, dug around, then flicked off the light, coming out, pausing to zip up his tent. He didn’t remember Gabe saying anything about campfires, but then, there’d been a lot he’d probably missed, as overwhelmed as he’d been.
“They have one almost every night,” said Marston, tucking his bundle beneath his arm. “Someone tells ghost stories, or people talk. They make s’mores, too, which can be pretty good.”
Marston waited for Kell outside of his tent, as Kell went in and hurriedly dug for what he’d need for a shower, realizing that he really needed to put his stuff away, like Wayne had done with his stuff. When he came out, he echoed Marston’s motions as he tucked his towel with shampoo and soap rolled inside beneath his arm.
“Do you go?” he asked as he stepped off the wooden platform into the grass.
“No,” said Marston with a quick shake of his head. “I’m not much for crowds, but—” He paused, turning to study Kell, head to toe much in the way that Gabe did, judging. But maybe he saw something different because this time there was a flicker of a smile in his eyes. “But maybe we should, after we shower. Yeah?”
“Okay,” said Kell, the weight in his chest feeling lighter than it had in days. “Okay.”
Chapter8
Marston
The shower facilities were about as fancy as it got, considering they were in the middle of a deep forest. Beyond the forest was the lake and the ridge and a whole lot of sky, making the valley so amazing that Marston wasn’t surprised that Leland had decided to buy it and develop it.
As far as Marston could tell, Leland wasn’t trying to develop it into the ground either, leaving as many parts of it wild as he could, given that he was going to be charging four hundred dollars a night for rich folks to stay there.
Which meant that the showers matched the price point, with a smooth painted cement floor, brand new iron fixtures meant to look old, large wooden shower stalls with a dressing area and, best of all, a shower-head that made it feel like you were standing beneath a heavy rainfall. Marston had taken two showers on Sunday, just for fun, and a good long shower each night, just to take advantage of it all.
“Got your tokens?” he asked as he led the way beneath the trellis and into the shower area.
When he didn’t get an answer, he turned around, thinking Kell had gotten spooked and run off. But Kell was right behind him, looking up at Marston with wide eyes, sparkling green in the soft lights that Marston flicked on.
“Tokens?” asked Kell.
“Gabe must have told you about them when he gave you your tour,” said Marston. “Explained the whole one-token-per-half-hour-of-shower deal.”
“Uh, sure.” Looking around, Kell seemed to be searching for something. Marston didn’t know what, exactly, but whatever it was that Kell thought lurked in the shadows, he was keeping his back to the sinks and sticking close to Marston’s side. “I’m sure he did. I just—forgot.”
“No problem. Like I said, I got extra.”
