out back. We just need a large jug or barrel, gravel, sand, and charcoal and put some cloth at the mouth. Turn it upside down and voila! Water filter . . . that is, in theory.”
“That’s a pretty good theory,” I said with a small smile. She smiled back.
“It’s still a theory,” Bryce grumbled.
Joey glanced over at Bryce, his jaws working, and then nodded, leaving out the side door.
Miranda glared at Bryce, and then continued making her cereal.
Bryce held out his hands. “What?”
I noticed Scarlet had quietly excused herself to the porch, standing in the same place she had that morning, staring at the road. She wore a man’s T-shirt that swallowed her and a pair of navy scrub pants.
“Now I know why the bedroom is a mess,” I teased. “You raided the doctor’s wardrobe.”
Scarlet looked down at her haphazard appearance and absently pulled a lock of stray hair behind her ear and then smoothed the rest. “Just the one T-shirt,” she said. “I actually didn’t ransack his room. It was like that. I was going to clean it—I actually needed to after I’d cleaned everything else and ran out of things to do—but I decided it was his room, and for some reason I had to leave it the way it was. Maybe for the girls.”
“His girls?”
She nodded to confirm, but soon her eyebrows pulled together and I realized too late my casual question for clarification reminded her of who she was waiting for.
“I can’t imagine waiting for Zoe, wondering if she was okay, or if she was coming at all.”
Scarlet laughed once. “You’re not helping.”
“But you have to believe that they’re coming.”
She closed her eyes and a tear slipped from beneath one of her eyelids. “I do.” She looked at me. “Trust me, I believe it. Andrew was a terrible husband, and to be honest, he wasn’t that great of a father, but what he lacked in compassion and patience, he more than made up for in efficiency and sense. He’s smart. Quick witted, you know? He could think on his feet. If anyone can get my girls here, to me, it’s him.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
She looked down her feet for a moment, fighting a hopeful smile, and then stared back at the road. We stood together in silence, watching the road together, until Zoe called for me. She was playing with small plastic horses, and Cooper was standing over her with a proud smile.
“They were Ashley’s.”
I nodded. “That was very kind of you.”
“She reminds me a lot of my little sister.” Cooper looked up at me. “Ashley was majoring in early childhood education. She’s good at it. I bet she could work with Zoe a little every day.”
Ashley walked by, on her way somewhere, and reached out for Cooper. Without looking back, he reached his hand behind him, and their fingertips grazed as she walked by. I wasn’t even sure how he knew she was coming.
“I can,” she said as she walked through the dining room to the back hallway. Her bedroom was back there somewhere, so I assumed that’s where she was headed.
“That will be so good for her. You have no idea. I can’t thank you enough.” I said the words to Cooper, even though it was for Ashley. Speaking to one was like speaking to both.
It was odd watching them interact and move about, orbiting each other, like an old couple who’d been married fifty years or more. If reincarnation was possible, these kids had to have found their way to each other again, many times over.
After an hour, Scarlet returned inside. She smiled at Zoe. “Do you have horses?” she asked.
Zoe held up a tiny horse in each hand. “Just these.”
Scarlet nodded her head, her expression absent of condescension. “Better than that bull out there, that’s for sure.”
“Butch?” Cooper said. “He’s not a bad guy. He’s just sick of being cooped up in that pen. You’ve been feeding him, haven’t you?”
“He has hay,” Scarlet said, “and water. I’m worried he’s going to attract shufflers, though.”
“Attract what?” Cooper said, chuckling.
Scarlet glanced at me, and then back at Cooper, clearly taken off guard by the question. “Shufflers. I can’t call them
“Yeah, but shufflers?” Cooper said, making a face.
“They shuffle!” Scarlet said, mildly defensive.
The conversation had drawn the attention of the rest of the group, and everyone else was congregating in the living room, too.
“I’ve been calling them sick, or infected,” I said.
“Those things,” Ashley said. Everyone craned their neck in her direction. She shrugged. “That’s what I call them:
Miranda crossed her arms. “I can’t call them zombies, either. I call them dead ones.”
“Biters,” Joey said.
“I like biters,” Miranda said, nodding.
“Well, I like shufflers. They shuffle,” Scarlet said.
Joey laughed once without humor. “They also bite.”
Scarlet frowned, but everyone seemed to be amused with the conversation.
“I think we should call them cows,” Zoe said, still playing with her horses. “They sound like cows.”
I laughed. “They groan.”
“Hmmm . . . ,” Zoe said, thinking very hard. “What about ted? It rhymes with dead. ‘Oh, no! There is a ted! Hide! Run, Cooper! Shoot the ted, Scarlet!’ ” She made all sorts of faces while she acted out the different scenarios in which we might yell
“Why me? Why do I have to shoot the ted?” Scarlet asked.
“Because you’re the best shot,” Zoe said.
“I like you,” Scarlet said, smiling only with her eyes.
“I like you, too,” Zoe replied.
Scarlet lifted her arms and let them fall to her thighs. “All right, I’m sold on ted. Anyone disagree?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Good choice, Zoe,” Cooper said.
Zoe smiled wider than I’d seen in years, and in that moment, it was easy to believe everything was going to be okay.
Chapter Twenty
Nathan
ZOE HAD BEEN SPENDING A lot of time outside on the porch before and after her studies with Ashley. Scarlet may have inspired her, I couldn’t be sure. When Zoe was asked what she was doing, she would barely explain.
“Waiting,” she would say. She alternated between examining her fingers as they rested in her lap and squinting to see beyond the hill.
I’d learned not to ask what she was waiting for. She wouldn’t tell me. I worried that she was missing her mother, but if Aubrey wasn’t who or what she was waiting for, I didn’t want to upset Zoe by bringing it to her attention. I worried that being safe wasn’t enough for my daughter. Then again, she seemed happy and hadn’t had an episode in over a week, so maybe I was so used to having something to worry about with her that I was overthinking things.
“Zoe?” I said, joining her on the porch. She’d been waiting quietly for nearly half an hour, and Ashley was waiting for her at the table. “Miss Ashley has made up some multiplication flash cards for you to try.”
“I don’t really like math,” she said.
