Page 139 of Under Story

“I think we should come every month now,” Laurel said.

“That’s what we were thinking, too,” said Gloria. “But Laurel—we just wanted to say—neither of us—Tess and I, we haven’t…”

Gloria looked out of her depth. In appeal, she turned to Tess.

“If you need to start back slowly,” Tess explained, “we’re more than willing to cover you.”

“I don’t have any more leave,” Laurel said.

“We know,” said Tess. “It doesn’t have to be official. Maybe you don’t come on every trip.”

“I want to come on every trip,” said Laurel. “I’m not an invalid.”

“Of course you aren’t,” Tess said. “But this stuff takes time. We just want you to have the option.”

“Thank you—truly,” said Laurel. “But I have a feeling work will help.” From across the cave, Tess nodded. “I’m going to observe the tree, okay?”

Gloria hid a grin. As Laurel left, she heard Gloria hiss, “I told you that she wouldn’t go for it.”

—

In March, Laurel walked to the basement in search of a box. She found it on top of the bin that held Silas’s pool supplies. Laurel heaved the box down and left quickly, so that she didn’t have to look at his goggles and floaties. Halfway up the stairs, she stopped to rest; at almost five months pregnant, she often lost her breath. If Eli weren’t out with colleagues, she would have asked for his help. Instead, she finished the second set of stairs and hoisted the box onto her desk.

Inside were the remnants of her double’s experiment. The tape labels remained intact, but the rhizomorphs had mostly crumbled. The camera still didn’t turn on.

Laurel opened her group text with Tess and Gloria.

Laurel

I’m going through some stuff from my early trips to the cave. Most of it isn’t useful at this point, but I did find a video camera.

Tess

Rad!

Gloria

wait, what?

Laurel

I sort of forgot about it. The thing is, it doesn’t turn on. I don’t know how to recover the footage.

Gloria

how did u access it originally?

Laurel paused. Then she typed, I’m not sure.

Gloria

hmm. the camera probably came with a reader for the SD card?

Laurel’s phone vibrated again. This text was from Gloria, too, but she had sent it to Laurel alone.

weird thing to forget???

Laurel inserted a shrug emoji. Gloria replied with a thinking emoji. Laurel had always thought that the thinking emoji looked less thoughtful than it did suspicious. She inspected the SD card and navigated back to the group thread.