Virginia's Arc

Chapter 4 of 4

A week after Virginia drove Thomas and Emmy through the gate, she walked the yard just to see it. The fortress had been two people and a broken hinge when she got here. Now there were tents pitched in neat rows along the inner wall. Someone had strung a line of washing between two posts. A pot was steaming on a stove near the tower base. She stopped and counted seventeen heads before she made herself keep walking. She found Thomas sitting on a crate outside a patched tent, watching Emmy sort through a bin of bolts and screws. He nodded at Virginia. He did not stand. Emmy held up a bent nail and asked if it was worth keeping. Virginia told her yes, straighten it on a rock. Emmy went to find a rock. Virginia asked Thomas how he was sleeping. "Better," he said. Then, after a moment, "She eats twice a day now." He did not look at Virginia when he said it. Virginia let it sit and moved on. On the far side of the yard, Mendez and Riley were passing out bowls from the pot. Mendez ladled. Riley carried. They worked the line without talking much. Virginia watched an older man take his bowl and sit against the wall. She watched a boy get his bowl before the two men behind him. Riley caught her looking and shrugged, like it was nothing. Virginia turned away before either of them could see her face. Elina was up on the sandbag line at the north wall, packing another bag into a gap. Her wings were folded tight. Two of her people worked with her, one shoveling, one holding the sack open. Virginia climbed up and asked if she needed another pair of hands. Elina looked at her. "Rest tonight," she said. "You've been up since first light." Virginia started to argue. Elina had already turned back to the wall. By dark, most of the camp had drifted to the stone ring in the center of the yard. Someone had built the fire small and clean, the way Thomas asked. Virginia took a seat on one of the log benches. Emmy sat on the ground and leaned against her knee without asking. Mendez was telling a story about a goat that had chased him through a gas station. Riley was laughing so hard she had to put her bowl down. Elina almost smiled. Virginia looked around the ring. Everyone had eaten. No one was sitting outside the circle. No one was being ignored. She had walked away from more camps than she could count for less than what she was seeing now. She felt something move in her chest and had to name it twice before she believed it. Hope. It was hope. She did not say it out loud. She just sat and let the fire warm her hands, and for the first night in a long time she decided she would not be walking in the morning.