Claire nodded.
Mariana reached into her pocket and produced a wad of leaves. She unwrapped it to reveal a handful of partially crushed slugs. “Thought they might be useful.” She impaled one on the curved hook. Then she stared at it. “In retrospect, sleeping with slugs in my pocket was one of the grosser things I’ve ever done. Maybe never tell anyone? Or speak of it ever again?”
“I’ll look for other bait, in case fish don’t like slugs,” Claire offered.
She walked along the rocky shore as Mariana tossed the nail with bait into the water as far as she could throw. It landed with a light splash and sank beneath the surface. “It might need to be deeper to catch anything of significant size,” Mariana warned.
“At this point, I’d eat a minnow,” Claire said.
“Just so we’re clear,” Mariana said, “I don’t actually know what I’m doing. The only kind of fishing I’ve done is off the side of a boat in the ocean. Before we moved.” While Mariana fished and talked, Claire scoured the shore for anything else she could find. “You know, my parents kept talking about all the new experiences we’d have, moving to a new place, and they never once talked about all we were leaving behind. I’ve been pretending to be fine. I’ve been lying for months.”
Claire located a few worms, another slug, and a treasure: a dented can with an illegible label. She carried it back reverently, with the bait inside.
“Guess I inherited my skill from my dad,” Mariana scoffed. “It was easy to lie to Jack when we suspected him. I don’t like how easy it was. Am I just a liar too? Is that, like, what I am?”
“You told us the truth,” Claire pointed out. “You didn’t have to do that. And it was right to suspect Jack.”
Mariana sighed. “I just don’t want to make the same mistakes my parents did, you know?”
“You won’t,” Claire said.
“You’re thinking I’m going to make up all new mistakes that are unique to me, aren’t you?”
Claire grinned. “Yep.”
“Guess I won’t worry about it, then.” Mariana shrugged. “Solong as I’m original.” She tossed her hair as she flashed a smile at Claire.
Reyva was now awake. She insisted on taking a turn at fishing one-handed, while Mariana switched to foraging at the edge of the forest. She collected a handful of fiddleheads, as well as five blueberries. Seeing them, Claire felt more hopeful, even though there were only five.
“How are you feeling?” Claire asked Reyva.
“Peachy.”
“We’ll eat a little, then we’ll hike again.”
“You don’t have to look at me like you’re afraid I’m going to fall to pieces,” Reyva said. “I can handle this.”
“That makes one of us,” Mariana said cheerfully.
Claire studied Reyva, trying to gauge the amount of pain she was in.
“If I get a bite, I’ll ask for help pulling it in. Promise,” Reyva told her.
That was progress, of a sort. Reyva wasn’t the type to ask for help, or even let anyone see she needed it.She must hate that she’s hurt, Claire thought.
Changing the subject, Mariana added three more blueberries to the stack. “Most looked unripe. Almost picked them, but not sure if they’d make us sick.”
“Anyone seen any sign of...” Claire trailed off, not sure what she was most worried about: the animal she’d half seen in her hunger delirium, Jack with his knife, or the person Jack’s father had feared, whoever that was. “... anything?”
“Saw a squirrel and a bird. Very exciting.”
“Good. That’s about the level of excitement I can handle.” Claire started along the shore in the opposite direction from the way she’d gone before, looking for anything they could use. Like a pizza that had washed up on shore—that would have been nice. Or French fries.Or sweet potato fries, she thought,with honey-maple dipping sauce.Daydreaming about sweet potato fries, she scanned the ground for anything that wasn’t a rock or a stick.
Reyva called her back. “Hey, Claire, why don’t we start moving? If we see a better fishing spot—someplace deeper—we’ll try again?”
Sounded sensible.
They split the blueberries and pocketed the fiddleheads. Claire stored the worms and slugs in the can, and they started walking. Same direction as yesterday: away from the dock, toward help and safety, hopefully.
