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She nodded "That would be wonderful I’m so cold I think it’s permanent now"

He walked to the kitchen He felt Eray T-shirt nearly dragging on the floor and a pair of white gy around her skinny ankles He watched her walk to the s pan Then he poured the water over the coffee and set it on the stove They’d gotten this routine down as of four days ago

He looked over to the wo at them, more dazed than not He didn’t even know her name, but at this mo an air of norot the coffee thing down first thing We’re just about ready to take it on the road Hey, E?"

"I don’t knohat that ns or does hed and ruffled her hair He looked over at herthere He could tell she was trying toto understand the relationship between her daughter and this rips with the fact that Ehter back

She didn’t say anything, just stood watchfully She looked strung out and very tired He said, "You’d think that boiled coffee would rot your fillings out, and it just ht, come to think of it, but it doesn’t taste too bad and it does zing your brain As I said, we’re basic here We’ve got a s roo stove and we heat the water for a bath"

E handle"

The wo, he knew, to understand as happening here "I’d drink anything that passed for coffee at this point I’ve been sitting out there waiting and waiting for daylight, waiting for you to come outside, but when you did, you had that rifle and I was too far away to do anything with my Detonics"

"I shouldn’t have left the cabin door unlocked It was stupid If it hadn’t been you, it could have been them"

"Well, it wasn’t I didn’t see anyone else out there Who’s the about?"

"Let’s hold that for just a little bit," he said, and nodded toward E "Sit down and try to drink it If anything it’ll keep you buzzing until noon, when you’ll probably crash E to fix you a bowl of Cheerios You want peaches or bananas?"

"A banana I don’t really like peaches"

"But you’ve eaten them without complaint"

She said as she took the cereal box from him and poured Cheerios into her bowl, "I didn’t want to hurt your feelings But I do like bananas better"

He sliced the banana over her cereal while she got the erator "Look, Ma "It doesn’t have a freezer Wefresh, just the e do at home"

"I’ve never seen one that fancy before It’s neat" She didn’t kno the words, such ordinary words, had come out of her mouth She’d passed from blankness to disbelief Here she’d expected to cohter’s abductor and deal with a hysterical hurt child, and now she was drinking boiled coffee at a kitchen table, looking into a high-tech refrigerator, listening to her daughter chew her Cheerios She looked at the big hter? He’d protected her with his life? NothingCheerios with a banana on top, nicely sliced by that stranger She didn’t say anything more until E his second cup of coffee, seated across fro her for teeks When I showed Eer, I just couldn’t believe it Several people told irl I didn’t knohat to think I’ve been watching since yesterday, but I couldn’t get to you without taking a chance of hurting Emma You never came out of the cabin Neither of you did"

"Who are you?"

"I’m Molly Santera"

Emma looked up as she sed a banana circle "Mama says it sounds like a made-up band’s name-our last name-but it’s real It’s my dad’s name"