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“What do you think aliens eat?”
“Eli, you’re so weird.” She rubbed her hand across her forehead. “I don’t know. My intuition says they probably are vegetarians. There’s got to be a lot of weird wildlife on other planets, right?”
They made their way to the first trap. “It’s empty.”
It wasn’t a surprise. The fish became less active when the temperatures dropped. But it wasn’t great either. Their supplies for winter weren’t as plentiful as they’d been last year. They had hoped to get a few more good days in before the lake began to freeze over.
“Maybe we’ll have more luck at the next one,” she said.
Eli followed her as she made her way toward the next trap. “So do you think alien planets have gray grass?”
“Oh my god, don’t talk to me about gray grass,” she groaned. “I have a headache from last night and I don’t need reminding.”
“Aw, poor thing,” he teased. “You were quite amusing last night, actually. You should drink gray grass more often.”
She moaned again. “What did I say?”
“It’s not so much what you said. It’s what you did. You were like a statue. You just sat there, feeling your lips and muttering about flying. And then you swayed in your seat like you were listening to music, except nothing was playing.”
“That’s not so bad. I’ve been worse.”
“Yeah, like that time you stood on the table and flashed everyone your—”
She shoved him off the beaten dirt path, right into a pile of weeds. “We don’t talk about that time!”
Eli tried to make his way out of the bramble, but she pushed him down again. He tripped backward over a branch and instinctively grabbed her arm on the way down, pulling her with him. She released a huff when her body hit his chest.
“Are you okay? I’m so sorry.” He started checking her body for scratches and that everything was all right. Her hair was covering her face so he couldn’t see her reaction, but he felt her trembling. He gently rolled her body off his. No, not trembling. Shaking. She was laughing. Of course she was. He was so concerned for her well-being and she was amused.
“I’m fine, Eli,” she said between fits of laughter. “You don’t need to worry about me.”
Once he realized she was okay, he began to see the humor in the situation. He chuckled and shook his head at her, pulling a weed out of her braid. “I thought I might’ve hurt you. You’re so tiny and fragile.”
“Fragile?” Her tone shifted to indignation, and she glared at him. “I am not fragile.”
“Okay,” Eli conceded. She was fragile, but he wouldn’t argue with her. He got to his feet and helped her up from the ground. “I should push you like you did me.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“No, I suppose I wouldn’t.”
“Fragile,” she muttered under her breath as she stomped off toward the next trap. Eli hid his smile.
The rest of the morning dragged on. They checked a few more traps, most of which were empty, but a few had a fair number of fish caught in them. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. They stopped for lunch at one of Eli’s favorite places.
It was an overgrown playground of cement and metal near the beach. Ridiculously tall structures of wood and iron twisted and turned across the terrain. Hills reached toward the sky and plummeted back down to earth. They were completely unsafe to explore. Time had ruined their integrity, but they were a magnificent sight.
His favorite place of all, though, was in the middle. It was a circular platform with ceramic horses all the way around. Ali hopped up on one of the horses with ease and pulled out a sack lunch. He pulled himself up on the one next to her. It was covered in dust and gold flakes were peeling from the pole that connected it to the top of the structure.
He was in the middle of a big swig of water when Ali turned to him. “Eli, are you happy?”
That was a very loaded question. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know where this was going. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, is this all you ever wanted? Living at Andus. Checking fish traps for a living. Being with me till death do us part?” She emphasized the last bit dramatically. It was flippant, and he choked up a little.
“I’m happy,” he said cautiously. “Why do you ask?”
She looked lost in her own thoughts. This had to be what was bothering her this morning. She picked at her food, not eating a bite.
