UnSouled

For all of his handpicked intelligence, Cam is an imbecile to think jealousy is what this is all about. Yes, Co

As Co

Dierdre lies back and puts her feet in Co

“Tricker treat! Smell my feet!”

Her feet smell like the baby food she must have stepped in, orange globs of sweet potato marring the pattern of ducklings swimming all over her socks.

“Nice socks,” Co

“Ducky socks!” says Dierdre happily. “Fishy arm!” She touches the shark on his arm with a sticky index finger. “Fishy arm. Army fish!” And she giggles. The giggle opens an escape valve in Co

“It’s a shark,” he tells Dierdre.

“Shark!” repeats Dierdre. “Shark shark shark!” Dierdre snaps a woman’s plastic head on a little plastic body of a firefighter. “Your mommy see the shark there? She mad at it?”

Co

“No,” he tells her. “My mommy doesn’t know about the shark.”

“You’ll get in trouble?”

“No worries,” Co

“No worries,” Dierdre repeats, and snaps a tire on top of the little plastic figure’s head, making it look like an oversized Russian hat.

Dierdre doesn’t know that there’s a letter in a trunk in Sonia’s back room. There are actually hundreds of letters. All written by AWOLs, all written to the parents who gave them over for unwinding. From the moment Co

Roland’s hand snaps together Legos just as efficiently as Co

•   •   •

Sonia’s powers of persuasion must verge on superhuman, because Ha

“Grace can bunk with Risa. You boys can share my sewing room. There’s a daybed in there—you’ll have to either share it or slug it out,” Ha

“We know the drill,” Co

“Some of us are,” Cam says, and indicates Grace. “From what I understand, you dragged her into this.”

“I dragged myself,” Grace tells him, keeping Co

Satisfied that the situation is under control, Sonia leaves. “Gotta feed the gremlins in my basement before they get restless,” although Co

A storm hits twenty minutes later—a steady stream of rain and distant lightning that threatens to draw closer but never does. Ha

The sewing room is upstairs with the rest of the bedrooms. A tiny space with a frilly daybed that insults the very concept of masculinity.

“I’ll sleep on the floor,” Cam offers, making sure Risa can see his selfless generosity. Risa’s response is to grin at Co

“Yeah,” says Co

Cam, still locked in competition mode, is not amused. For the rest of the day Risa does her best to avoid being in the room with both of them at the same time, and since Cam won’t let Co

“So are we supposed to share it?” Cam asks with an a

Risa, flustered, apologizes. “I’ll find another one.”

Co

He finds out after di

Grace has taken to entertaining Dierdre. The giggles from the nursery attest to her success. Co

“Can I come in?” she asks tentatively.

Co

She sits on the room’s only chair and smiles. “I’ve missed you, Co

This is a moment Co

So he clasps her hand, but doesn’t hold it all that tightly. “Yeah,” he says. “Same here.” But he says it without the conviction he really feels.

She studies him, and he hopes she doesn’t see through his cool facade. “All those things I said—the commercials, the public service a

“They attacked the Graveyard anyway,” Co

Now she begins to get concerned. “Co

“No, I don’t think you betrayed us,” he tells her. He can’t mislead her about his feelings that much. “But a lot of Whollies died that night.” What he really wants to do is take her into his arms and hold her tightly. He wants to tell her that thinking of her is the only thing that kept him going. But instead he says, “They died. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“Next you’ll be blaming me for Starkey.”

“No,” says Co

Risa looks down. For a moment he sees tears building in her eyes, but when she looks up at him again, her expression is hard. Her vulnerability is once more protected by armor. “Well, I’m glad you’re alive,” she tells him, taking her hand back from him. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“As safe as can be expected,” says Co

Risa sighs. “I guess we’ll never be safe.”

“You’re safe,” Co

Now she looks at him with suspicion. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’ve settled into this life with Ha

“Settled in? I’ve been here two weeks! That’s hardly settled in—and now that you’re here—”