“Of course. We discuss it insomuch as you understand that I will not be paying you in currency. Honestly, Mr. Green, do you supposeAmerican capitalism values our work with creatures that largely cannot be perceived and thus are rarely exploited?”
“I guess not. When would I start?”
“Now.”
His mouth felt very dry.
“Okay. I’m in.”
Valentina clicked her tongue and spoke to herself.
“Remarkable. I have not had a proper apprentice since the Rodriguez brothers. How very interesting.”
He shifted his weight uncomfortably, feeling like a bug in a jar.
“Then, here are my basic terms,” she said. “Subject to change and mutual consent.”
Valentina laced her fingers together over her stomach, as though she were participating in an old-fashioned spelling bee.
“For the present, you will live here, though this arrangement may change after we get your campsite in working condition. You will work for me approximately eight hours a day doing whatever tasks I deem appropriate. I will make a good faith effort to ensure your safety and sanity in whatever work I assign. You will dedicate at least two hours each evening to supplemental readings and conversations on the subject of cryptonature. This will increase your utility and autonomy as a cryptonaturalist. I have no earthly idea what you would do with a weekend given your circumstances and location, but you may use Saturday and Sunday for unspecified leisure if you don’t bother me overmuch or impede my work.”
“Alright. That all sounds fair.”
He wanted to hug her. He was also certain that, of the two other bodies in the cabin, it would be more appropriate to hug the moth.
“Excellent. You will begin work tonight.”
The wordsbegin workinvited a brand-new anxiety to the party.
“That soon? What will I be doing tonight?”
“Simple observation. An old custom. You’ll be holding a wake.”
The rag moth’s smell wasa living animal. It circled the cabin like a panther. Part old library, part condemned warehouse. It kept Green company as the sunlight disappeared from the cabin’s one small window. Holding a wake meant monitoring the moth overnight, being on hand to observe any changes in the corpse.
That afternoon, Valentina had laid out more rules for his apprenticeship:
“You will not open locked doors. You will not enter my living quarters uninvited. You will not fiddle with any equipment you do not understand. You will not visit the roof of the library underanycircumstances. You will not discuss our work publicly without my prior approval.”
He really didn’t think any of the prohibitions needed to be said. He wanted to discuss his new job with strangers about as much as he wanted to climb onto the camp’s roofs. Not at all.
She sent him to gather his things, making a special point of telling him to leave his car at his campsite.
“I detest cars,” she said.
He visited Dancer to return her cup and explain how he had solved his shelter problem for the night.
She thanked him for the cup and was bewildered by the news that he would be staying with Valentina. She had to confirm several times that they were talking about the same woman who lived down Moss Man’s Row. Green thought she came close to calling him a liar.
He used an expensive waterproof ground cover as a tarp to shelter his broken windshield, holding it in place with heavy stones and a fallen branch. When he gathered his belongings to take to Valentina’s, he found that most of what was relevant fit into his backpack. Clothes. Food. Toiletries and medical supplies. A gravity filter he didn’t expect to need. Flashlight. A notebook and a battered old copy ofMy Side of the Mountainhe’d bought at a fifth-grade book fair. He meant to reread it in the mountains.
He respected his new teacher’s feelings about cars and moved his supplies on foot. With his sleeping bag under one arm and a water jug in the other, it took only one trip. He felt some small vertigo when he compared his possessions in that moment to his possessions six months earlier. Maybe for the first time, he felt no strong pull to mourn the discrepancy.
Valentina gave him a quick tour of her campsite.
Frustratingly quick.
She dismissed the giant tree house with a wave and a word. “Library.” It was the same with most of the structures.
