“Because what?”
He was scrambling for what to say and blinking far too much.
“Because I have something more important you can do,” he finally said, leading her across the cabin to a supply room that looked like the inside of Mary Poppins’s carpet bag. That was to say, it was a glorified junk drawer.
“We’ve been meaning to clear this out for years,” he told her.
Raven leaned forward from the safety of the threshold to get a better look at the cramped space haphazardly stuffed with miscellaneous items she couldn’t even identify.
“And this is urgent?” she asked.
“Relatively,” he said.
She was unsure if he thought her naive or passive enough to go along with what was clearly bullshit.
Everything in her wanted to call it out. She hated being dismissed, but she wasn’t trying to execute a hostile takeover. If she had to do some obvious busy work to prove she was serious and committed, she would.
“Consider it done,” she said.
When Silas left, she took a few minutes to devise a plan, change into a pair of flat shoes she always kept in her car, and drown out her surroundings with earphones and a playlist. First thing she tackled was the confused mess on the floor. She came across banquet tables and chairs, a dry-erase board on wheels, a wooden sign that read “Mountaintop Adventures: The Rockies Await!”, a lawn mower, and boxes filled with tapes and DVDs of differentRambomovies. If she couldn’t carry something out of the closet, she dragged it.
When she set about unpacking the overstuffed shelves, she was forced to do it slowly and carefully for fear everything would collapse. Despite all her care, she still managed to smash her fingers between the lid of a toolbox. Her only solace as she cradled her hand against her chest was that none of her acrylic nails had broken.
Time passed, but Raven didn’t realize how much until Silas reappeared in the doorway.
“We’re having lunch if you’re interested,” he said, giving the room a cursory look but providing no commentary.
He left as abruptly as he’d appeared, missing Raven’s mocking smile.
With grime and dust coating her hands and clothes, the restroom was her first stop, but she found Halo blocking her path in the hallway.
The older woman didn’t notice Raven at first, too absorbed with the hushed but sharp conversation she was having on the phone. “No, Libby. Yeah, because I said so, that’s why. How’s that?”
The muffled voice on the other end shouted something, to which Halo responded, “Don’t you dare hang up on—”
She’d been hung up on. And it was while Halo was pocketing her phone that she and Raven made eye contact.
“Sorry, I wasn’t eavesdropping,” Raven said quickly, pointing to the restroom door she’d been trying to reach, and Halo responded by wordlessly stomping past.
When Raven joined the others in the break room, the conversation and laughter trailed off as she was noticed. But with her head held high, Raven retrieved her lunch and took the empty spot next to Bodie.
“How was everyone’s morning?” Raven asked and was met with a weak chorus of “Fines” and “Goods,” and for a while, muted chewing and Chestnut’s squeaking were the only sounds filling the room.
She hated being the reason for the stilted energy, so she thought hard for something to generate conversation. “What’s up with all theRamboon VHS in the storage closet?”
The question got everyone looking up from their food and prompting some laughter.
“Those were Chuck’s,” Doc explained with a small smile. “When our Blockbuster shut down, he bought every lastRamboDVD and tape they had.”
“What was he like? Chuck. I ask because I only knew him from a child’s perspective,” she said. Before she could worry if her question was too sensitive, Bodie, the guy with the massive traps, grinned and said, “A legend. He faced a bear and lived to tell the tale.”
“Wait, anactualbear?” she asked.
“Yup,” Bodie said, his chest puffed out like it was his accomplishment.
“He was bigger than life,” Halo said wistfully from her place at the other end of the table.
“And that laugh,” Silas added, launching into an impression that sounded like a chain-smoking Santa Claus.
