We both looked at Teal. She seemed to have fallen asleep, but every now and then she would shudder and moan and cry.
"Maybe we didn't get the poison out fast enough or all of it," Robin said.
I shook my head. Her guess was as good as mine. We continued to sit an both sides of Teal, our knees up, looking at the fire. Coyotes howled around us, the wood crackled.
"Once, when I was very little. I went on a picnic with my mother." Rabin said. "She had some boyfriend with us. but I can't remember his name. I remember we made a fire and they roasted
marshmallows for me, and then we had hot dogs and my mother sang and played her guitar. I fell asleep on the blanket, and when I woke up, there was no one there. They were off in the bushes or something."
"Weren't you afraid?"
"I was for a while and then I watched some birds and at intrigued with how hard they worked at feeding themselves. It was a particularly beautiful day. too. I remember that. and I remember really enjoying myself. Finally, my mother and her boyfriend came from wherever they were and her boyfriend carried me on his shoulders all the way back to our farm. I can't remember his name. but I remember his hair. It was a reddish yellow and I had clumps of it in my small fists, holding it like the reins of a horse. Sometimes, he cried out because I was pulling on his hair too hard. but I remember feeling as if I was on the top of the world, seeing everything from an adult's height.
"I never went on another picnic. and I never saw that boyfriend again. Sometimes. I used to think of it as a dream I had when I was very young. If I mentioned it to my mother, she would look as if she didn't remember it at all. I don't think it was a special or important day for her.
"After a while, it slipped out of my memory, but just now, as we were staring at the fire, it returned and I recalled my fists full of reddish yellow hair. That's silly, isn't it? The only thing I really remember vividly, that hair."
"No. Maybe you remember it so well because it made you feel safe to hold on to it."
She turned and looked at me. "Maybe." She smiled, "Maybe that's what I was looking for through the fire. a way to feel safe again,"
We were quiet. Teal moaned.
I lay back and Rabin did the same. Before we fell asleep, we each had our arms around Teal, and that was how we were when the sun woke us with its stinging good morning.
Teal looked groggy, her cheeks stained with lines her tears had made zigzagging their way off her face. Rabin and I sat up and watched her wipe her eyes. She looked at us and blinked as if she had forgotten everything. Then she spoke and sent new chills of fear dawn my back and Robin's, even in this desert heat.
"Where's my mother?" she asked. "What?"
She sat up and looked at us and then around us, shaking her head. "I've got to get home."
"What is she talking about?" Rabin asked.
I shook my head and reached out to feel her forehead. It was so hat. I had to take my hand away,
"She's burning up."
"If I don't get home quickly, my father will be very angry and he'll ground me again," Teal said. "Who's driving me home?"
"We have to walk first," I told her.
"Walk? To where? Can't you call a cab?"
"Can't you see where you are?" Rabin asked.
Teal turned to her, her eyes blinking. "Who are you?"
"Great," Robin said. "What do we do now?"
"It'll pass." I said. I stood up and looked out to my right and to my left. Had we gone too far off the trail back? Nothing suggested we were heading in the right direction. It all looked so similar, the same hills, the same cacti and bushes. I glanced at the sun.
"We should probably go more to our left," I said.
"You don't understand." Teal muttered. "I can't stay any longer. I'm already well past my curfew"
"Me, too." Robin told her.
Teal touched her lips and looked at her fingers and then at us. "I'm very thirsty. I'd like a Coke or something. please."