@@@@@ Tomorrow would be just as hard as today I
@@@@@ Tomorrow would be just as hard as today
I looked at Jeb mournfully, and he was smiling in my directionThere was a smugness to his
grin that made me believe he knew what I was thinking–not only did he guess my discomfort,
but he was enjoying it
He winked at me, my crazy friendI realized again that this was the best to be expected from
human friendship
“See you tomorrow, Wanda,” Ian called from across the room, and laughed to himself
CHAPTER 24
Tolerated
It was true that I did not smell good
I'd lost count of how many days I'd spent here–was it more than a week now? more than
two?–and all of them sweating into the same clothes I'd worn on my disastrous desert trekSo
much salt had dried into my cotton shirt that it was creased into rigid accordion wrinklesIt used
to be pale yellow; now it was a splotchy, diseased-looking print in the same dark purple color as
the cave floorMy short hair was crunchy and gritty; I could feel it standing out in wild tangles
around my head, with a stiff crest on top, like a cockatoo'sI hadn't seen my face recently, but I
imagined it in two shades of purple: cave-dirt purple and healing-bruise purple
So I could understand Jeb's point–yes, I needed a bathAnd a change of clothes as well, to
make the bath worth the effortJeb offered me some of Jamie's clothes to wear while mine
dried, but I didn't want to ruin Jamie's few things by stretching themThankfully, he didn't try to
offer me anything of Jared'sI ended up with an old but clean flannel shirt of Jeb's that had the
sleeves ripped off, and a pair of faded, holey cutoff sweatpants that had gone unclaimed for
monthsThese were draped over my arm–and a bumpy mound of vile-smelling, loosely molded
chunks that Jeb claimed was homemade cactus soap was in my hand–as I followed Jeb to the
room with the two rivers
Again we were not alone, and again I was miserably disappointed that this was the caseThree
men and one woman–the salt-and-pepper braid–were filling buckets with water from the smaller
streamA loud splashing and laughing echoed from the bathing room
“We'll just wait our turn,” Jeb told me
He leaned against the wallI stood stiffly beside him, uncomfortably conscious of the four pairs
of eyes on me, though I kept my own on the dark hot spring rushing by underneath the porous
floor
After a short wait, three women exited the bathing room, their wet hair dripping down the
backs of their shirts–the athletic caramel-skinned woman, a young blonde I didn't remember
seeing before, and Melanie's cousin Sh