allowed him to keep an eye on the pool, which had been drained, repaired, and finally filled with fresh water. Anyone caught stealing from the pool was banished from University Camp into the Dead Zone. Annie had scrubbed the room the best she could without using water, but still that faint stale odor of Coach Ryder's cigars lingered.
The furnishings were simple. Against either wall were two beaten mattresses Eric had carried from a smouldering house around the corner. At night when Annie's face lay against the mattress, she could still smell the fire that had destroyed the home. Even without the mattress, the air was laced with a charcoal bitterness from the old fires and the new ones no one bothered to put out. The only time she could escape that smell was at night, when she cuddled next to Eric and buried her nose against his naked chest.
Someone knocked on the door with a familiar rhythm: shave-and-a-haircut, two bits.
'Hey, open up in there. You've got company.'
Eric picked up the crossbow leaning next to his desk, cocked the bowstring, slid a bolt into the groove, and pointed it at the door. He nodded at Annie, who quickly unlatched the series of bolts and locks on the door, and pulled it open.
Tracy Ammes stepped in, her hands in the air. 'Friend.'
Annie peeked out the door to both sides, then closed and locked it again. Eric removed the arrow, released the bow, returning both to within easy reach.
'Hi, Tracy,' Eric said.
'I don't know about your other guests, but I get the willies every time I know I'm coming over. You never know when that thing might accidentally go off.'
Annie and Tracy hugged.
'Eric doesn't believe in accidents,'' Annie laughed. 'Just ask him.'
'Is that right? You don't believe in accidents?'
'That's right,' Eric said without looking up from his project. 'Cause and effect. Everything is somebody's fault.'
'What about last week when Bob Lindwall broke his foot when it crashed through the floor he was repairing?'
'Carelessness.'
'What about Susan Nordahl being thrown from her bike yesterday when the tire blew?'
'Inexperience.'
Annie winked at Tracy. 'What about the time last summer you were showing off doing high dives at the pool and your bathing trunks came off?'
'That was different,' Eric said, 'that was an-'
'Accident,' Annie and Tracy chorused with him.
He looked up and smiled. 'That's right.'
Tracy flopped down on the mattress next to Annie and began helping her cut the vinyl. 'I just dropped by to ask if Timmy could stay another half hour at the Day Care School. He's in the middle of a hot chess game with Sheena Brill and it looks like she might just take him.'
Annie glanced at her watch. 'Fine. We'll pick him up on the way to visit Jennifer. How do you like working there?'
'It's okay,' Tracy shrugged. 'We try to teach them, as much as we can, but the kids are different ages and abilities, and there aren't enough of any one group that we can afford to use one teacher on them.'
'Sounds like the old fashioned one-room schoolhouse.'
'Exactly. And to think I used to be nostalgic for those good ole days. I was hoping to teach some art, but the Council's decided art isn't necessary for our present condition, so the closest I get is fingerpainting with five-year- olds.' She sighed. 'So much for Enlightenment.'
'At least things couldn't get worse.'
'Think so? Try keeping Councilman Epson from pawing you to death every time he gets within range. He's starting to wear the material through on the seat of my pants.' Tracy glanced around the room. 'Looks different in here.'
'Yeah, I finally pulled up that tacky carpet. Some rain got in before Eric fixed the roof. It took me a couple weeks to decide whether I preferred the smell of mildew to that of smoke. I opted for the more romantic scent of ashes.'
Tracy laughed. 'At least you have a private room. After three months of sleeping on wrestling mats with a hundred other women, I'd kill for something like this.'
'Council laws, my dear. Only married couples get the private rooms.'
'How provincial. I overheard Derek Yancey and Kerne Nash talking about getting married just so they can get a room. Apparently the guys don't like their half of the gym any better than we like ours.'
Annie shook her head. 'Council won't approve. I helped draft the wording of the law just to prevent those kinds of marriages. We just don't have the room.'
'What about pregnancies?'
'We haven't worked the details out yet on that, but the sentiment of the Council seems to be in favor of forced abortion of anyone who's become pregnant since the quake. For another couple months anyway.'
'My God, Annie. I thought Epson was morally opposed to abortions.'
Annie nodded. 'Times have changed. It's less of a medical risk right now to have an abortion than to carry the baby and give birth.'
'Well, there goes my other plan for getting a room.' Tracy shifted Annie's wrist to look at her watch. 'Gotta get back to the school. My turn to do nightwatch with the orphans.'
Eric twisted around in his chair as Annie unfastened the locks. 'Where's your bow?'
'I gave it back,' Tracy said. 'They were short on bows and I never really got the hang of it anyway.'
'What weapon are you using?'
'They gave me a hunting knife.'
'Then wear it. Always.'
'Christ, Eric, what's the point? I don't think I could use it if I had to.'
'If you had to, believe me, you could.'
Annie squeezed her shoulder. 'It's not just the outside you have to worry about, Tracy. You know that.'
Tracy nodded. She remembered two instances so far where members of the camp had gone berserk. Steve Conrad had raped and strangled his wife before Eric had fired an arrow through his chest. Tom Flannigan had stolen food from the cafeteria, then threatened to jump off the library roof. Eric had talked him down, then convinced the Council to expel him from University Camp. Tom's wife and children had chosen to stay behind.
'Okay,' she said, 'next time you see me I'll be packing my blade, baby.' She hugged Annie and waved at Eric, closing the door behind her.
'She's got a crush on you,' Annie said as she relocked the door.
'Come off it.'
'It's true, super stud.'
Eric looked up and shook his head. 'You women think you know what everybody's feeling.'
'Relax, I'm not accusing either one of you of anything. I'm just stating a fact. I find it kind of flattering.'
'To me?'
'No, to me. My good taste.'
Eric snorted, returned to tying the fishline to the flare.
'She's very attractive,' Annie continued, settling in with her scissors and vinyl. 'And she's smart as hell. Not to mention talented.'
'I thought you two were friends.'
'We are. I know she would never make a play for you. She's too loyal, too sensitive.'
'You've convinced me. I love her.'
'I'm serious. She's got things pretty tough. Stuck in a gym at night with a hundred other women, working with kids all day. She's pretty lonely.'
'She tell you this?'
'She didn't have to. I've got eyes.'
