Jack began, “Hey, I don’t—”
“Okay, so we set up a net in the water off the end of the dock, Jack teaches us how to set snares, and we use nails and wire to tryto fish.” That was three possible avenues to food. She liked the sound of that.It sounds like hope, Claire thought.
“Wait, stop! Just stop! What are you all talking about?” Jack yelped. “Fishing lines?I don’t plan on being here through dinner. We have to find a way out!”
They all stared at him, deadpan. “We’ve been stuck here. Without your boat. Fordays,” Mariana snapped. “You really believe we didn’t try to think of a way out?”
They were silent for a moment. Claire took up the thread. “Best we could come up with was heading to the boathouse. I imagine the walk takes several days. We’ll need to sustain ourselves along the way.”
Jack stared at each of them in turn, his eyes wide. Then he seemed to deflate. “I also know how to make snares, if we can find wire. And Paiute deadfall traps.”
“What’re those?” Reyva asked.
Jack knelt in the sand, demonstrating. “You take a heavy rock, prop it up with a stick. Use another stick to brace the first stick—” Using one of the sticks from their former fire, he propped up a rock. The instant he released it, the rock smacked down. He yanked his fingers back just in time. “It’s a little tricky, but the idea is that you put bait underneath. When the prey comes along, it knocks on the stick andsplat.”
“That’s horrific,” Mariana said.
“Like with fishing, it relies on a bit of luck,” Jack said. “You can set twenty traps and get nothing. It helps if you know the areas the animals go. Find their tracks.”
Maybe our luckislooking up, Claire thought. Jack lived here.He was outdoorsy. He fished. He trapped. He camped. He was perfect.
She studied him in a way she hadn’t when he’d been their boat driver or just the boy Mariana was flirting with. He had floppy blond hair, freckles on his nose from lack of sunscreen, and blue eyes that matched the lake. He reminded Claire of a golden retriever, eager and sweet, at least now that the initial shock of the last hour had passed. Maybe it was okay that they were four. Maybe Jack was exactly what they needed to change their fate. She wondered what she would have thought of him if she’d met him at school. Most likely, she would have hoped he wouldn’t talk to her so she could avoid having to talk back. “What do you know about edible plants?” Claire asked.
“I know you can eat fiddleheads,” Jack said. “And dandelions. Also, there could be black raspberries, blueberries, wild strawberries, mulberries—especially blueberries. I think they’re in season. Also heard you can eat pine bark, the white layer under the rough stuff, but it kind of messes with your system, if you know what I mean. Not sure that should be our first choice.”
Fiddleheads, blueberries, dandelions, pine bark—she carefully cataloged all of that.
“Probably a lot more plants that are edible,” Jack said, “but I’m not really a salad guy.”
“You just haven’t had a salad with avocado,” Mariana said. “Bliss.”
Jack frowned. “Avocado doesn’t grow in Maine, so we won’t find any of those.”
Just out of sight of Jack, Reyva rolled her eyes, and Claire bitback a laugh. She felt like laughing at everything—the lake, the sky, even the man with the gun who thought they’d die. She felt, for the first time since she’d seen the burned-down house, hope. It was as potent as a shot of caffeine. “You may be our hero after all,” Claire said to Jack. It was a bit galling that they’d needed him to swoop in—and kind of unforgivable that he’d clearly left the keys to the boatinthe boat—but she wasn’t about to deny his usefulness now.
He looked startled and then smiled.
Claire smiled back. She hadn’t been able to say more than two words to Jack on the ride across the lake, but somehow it wasn’t as hard to talk to him now, when they were all stuck here together.Learn new skills, have new experiences, and make new friends, she heard her parents say. She wasnotgoing to tell them they’d been right, in a way. “Okay. Let’s do it. Step one: we loot the Lake House for whatever we need. Step two: Jack teaches us everything he knows.”
Together, the four of them trooped up the trail to the Lake House.
The birds were chirping, and Claire felt more hopeful than she had in days. This time, they didn’t need to be quiet because they’d all watched the man with the gun motor away. “You know how to clean a fish too, right? And how to prepare a rabbit or squirrel or whatever we catch?” she asked Jack. “You can teach us that too?”
He lit up as if she’d invited him to explain his favorite movie. “Key is not to pierce the guts. That’s especially true with anyrodents, but fish can have parasites too. You have to be really careful not to puncture the intestines, or you’ll contaminate the meat.”
“How do you identify—”
“Going to stop you right there,” Mariana said. “Maybe we can save this conversation for later? Really don’t want to puke on an empty stomach.”
“Sorry,” both Jack and Claire said.
They shared a smile.
Definitely okay that there are four of us, Claire thought. So far, Jack was proving both useful and nice. She hadn’t realized how badly she’d needed something positive to happen.
“Thanks,” Mariana said, slowing to step over a snarl of roots. “Appreciate it. Instead, how about you tell us what your favorite color is, Jack? Or your greatest fear?”
Reyva groaned.
