Page 73 of Under Story

They plan to spend the day packing. While Eli is in the shower, Nita knocks.

“I brought provisions,” she says. “I figured you might still be avoiding the galley.”

She’s turned a bath caddy into a carrying tray. Inside is a thermos of coffee, a bowl filled with muffins, and sandwiches for lunch and dinner.

“Bless you,” says Laurel.

Nita smiles. “I’m on my way to see Sam; she’s flying out tomorrow, too. But I have one more thing for you.” She retrieves a notecard, folded in half. “This is from Louis. He’s starting to think you’re avoiding him, so I told him you have food poisoning.”

Laurel unfolds the card. Crooked capitals huddle in the center, as if for warmth.

What: last hurrah

Where: the softball field

When: midnight

—

They meet Nita under a streetlamp.

Eli extends a hand. “Well, this is very weird.”

“You know,” says Nita, shaking it, “I think I like you without the beard.”

McMurdo’s softball field skirts the Sound, less a diamond than an imprecise dirt triangle. In periwinkle twilight, Louis sits on the ground. Beside him are a pile of blankets, a container of Oreos, and a thermos with four cups.

“You came!” he says, clapping. “Are you feeling better?”

Nita nudges Laurel, who says, “Much.”

Louis considers them. “You do look a bit wobbly. If you want my opinion, it was the chili.”

The other three sit down. Wind rolls off the water. Laurel and Nita huddle under a blanket.

“Louis, my love,” Nita says, “why are we here?”

“For a tea party,” says Louis.

“We couldn’t have done it indoors?”

“I’m sick of indoors, aren’t you?” asks Louis, pouring tea from the thermos into cups. “I’ve started to loathe my bedroom. Ten years ago, you could put a headset on and find yourself in a cozy living room, with a fire and your boyfriend’s hologram.”

“That tech always gave me the creeps,” Nita says. “I’d try to cuddle with Sanjeet and go right through him.”

Louis shrugs. “Touch is overrated.”

Laurel drinks her tea obediently. Nita passes the cookies. Eli hasn’t said a word; he looks as though he wishes that they hadn’t left the dorm.

“Well, I suppose it’s time to start,” says Louis. “I’ve never been master of ceremonies before.”

The others look at him expectantly. His hair spills out from beneath a striped hat, its pom-pom drooping to one side.

“I guess the thing to say is that I’ll miss you. I’ve never really had a family—it wasn’t like that with my dad—and I know Nita’s staying through winter, but it won’t be the same, will it, with Laurel and Eli gone? So I went to Skua,” he says. “I was looking for friendship bracelets, but what I found was so much better.”

He produces a square tin. The lid reads Collector’s Marbles.

Nita says, “I think I’d rather have a bracelet.”