We started walking again and Robin began to sing as loudly as she could.
"Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light..."
Teal reluctantly joined in and soon our voices carried over the desert. None of us could reach the high notes and our sad attempts brought some laughter.
"Let's play ball," Robin shouted when we finished. We walked on and soon lost sight of the coyotes. "See, it worked," I told Teal.
They weren't afraid of us. They just couldn't stand our singing." she said.
We laughed again, and then, when we reached the top of a knoll, I decided we should rest and eat another nutritional bar,
"It's time for dinner," I declared, and folded my legs. They did the same.
"Wait. wait," Teal cried, holding her hand out. "No one eats without thanking everyone else and saying I'm sorry."
"Exactly," Robin said, and did it. I did the same and then Teal did and we laughed again.
"Do you think Mindy and Gia are sick with worry over us by now?" Teal asked.
"No. I think they're sick about having to do all the dishes and clean the table and whatever else we did together." Robin told her.
"I didn't mind the work so much. I just mind someone telling me I have to do it or I don't get to eat," Teal said.
"Come on." I said. "You minded the work. When did you ever really work? You told us about your maids and your servants."
"Well... okay, I hated the work."
"I can't understand you." Robin said. "You had so much. Why did you get yourself into so much trouble all the time?"
"I had a big house and my family has lots of money, but I just didn't feel like I belonged. It's hard to describe."
"No, it's not." I said. ''Blood doesn't make family."
"What does?" Teal asked me.
I shook my head. "I don't know."
"Love," Robin said. "As corny as it sounds, real love, someone who cares about you as much as, if not more than, he or she cares about himself. That's what a mother's supposed to be." she said bitterly.
"But." she added after chewing some of her bar. "I guess she was brought up without love so she didn't know how to give it to me, Anyway, I'm tired of hating her. Hate is exhausting."
We were all quiet. Her words seemed to settle the same way in us all.
"I don't think there was anything I wanted more than my mother and father and my brother to love me," Teal said.
"Why is it that the one thing we all need more than anything, we all have a hard time giving to each other?" Robin asked.
I had no answer.
I finished my bar and lay back with my head an my hands and looked up at the sky blazing with stars.
"If you lie back like this," I said. "and concentrate on the stars, you can feel like you're falling into them and not looking up. Try it."
They did and agreed.
I told them about Natani and the shell. I had told Teal but she had mocked it back on the ranch. Now she listened as attentively as Robin did.
"I guess you have to be out here to understand what he meant," Teal admitted.