Page 76 of The Wild Beneath

“How do you know there’ll be a storm?”

“Weather reports started back up on the radio.”

“Shouldn’t you wait?”

Evan dodges her question. “I could probably use a deckhand this time, in case the weather turns bad.”

A long pause. Walker is watching him; it’s as if he can see straight through Evan’s skull. The whole thing feels bleak, a wrong turn inside a game Evan made up. One he doesn’t want to play anymore.

“I’ll go with you,” Walker says.

“We should both go,” Annie says.

“I’d prefer if only Walker goes,” Evan says quickly, somehow managing to keep his voice steady. “I’m not sure you’re stormproof these days.”

Immediately, he regrets saying it.

“Right.” She looks down at the ground. “You don’t think I can handle it.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I don’t know what you mean at all, lately.” Her voice is clipped. She climbs out of the boat, down the ladder, and past him.

Annie wanders around the kitchen, picking up items and putting them down again. She doesn’t know what to send along with Evan and Walker. Nothing feels adequate; nothing will make them stormproof, either. All she manages to pull together are a toothbrush and a can of pinto beans. As if those would do them any good. She doesn’t even have a bag to put them in.

“Why won’t Evan wait a couple days?” she says anxiously.

Walker takes the items from her hands and sets them in a cloth bag on the counter. “Nothing you can say will change his mind.”

“He should be terrified of a storm when he’s towing booms.”

Walker puts dried fish in an old margarine container, then places it inside the bag with the rest of the food. He seems resigned. “He’s living inside a storm already.”

“And now he’s taking you with him?”

Walker takes Aiden’s old slicker off the hook by the door and puts it on. “It’s my own decision to go. Don’t put it on him.”

“But why do you have to?”

“He can’t do it on his own this time.”

“Neither of you should go.” She turns back to the pantry to get the rice.

“If I don’t go, he could get hurt.” Walker is matter-of-fact.

Annie pours half the rice into an old Safeway plastic bag, then ties off the handles. “Will you have enough drinking water?”

Walker turns to grab some water purification tablets. “How about these in case?”

Annie pauses. What she really wants is to bubble wrap them both for better protection. She unclasps her whalebone necklace. “Please take this.”

Walker hesitates.

“A whale died on the beach when I was little. Hit by a boat. She was all by herself.” Annie takes his forearm and pushes up his sleeve. She wraps the leather cord twice around his wrist. “My dad carved the beads from the bones.”

“You should keep it with you.”

“If you don’t have some kind of good luck charm, I’ll be too afraid.”