Page 124 of Everything Under the Sun

“And what?” I prompted. Women?Just look at her…just once in this moment, and it’s over.

Mark didn’t look at Thais.

“And drugs,” he answered with a quickness that disappointed me. “Hallucinogens and heavy-duty pain-killer stuff mostly. Can’t find it much anymore. But in Denver”— he leaned forward, looked around as if to make sure no one else was listening, then continued in a lowered voice—“we’ve got a few people who know their stuff when it comes to wild plants and herbs and shit like that; they produce some killer drugs in Denver."

Thais looked as if she were about to say something, but I interrupted her.

“You said mostly crazies,” I went back to something Mark had said before. “Who else has Denver been attacked by?” I placed my hand on Thais’ thigh and patted it.

She lowered her head, probably realizing the mistake she had almost made: she knew her way around wild plants and herbs, but this stranger did not need to know that.

“A few times, larger groups have come,” Mark said. “They had horses and guns, and didn’t lack determination, but it’ll take a lot more to overrun Denver, that’s for sure. This is good fish. I really appreciate it.” He continued to shovel food into his mouth until his plate was clean. He even licked it afterwards.

Mark hung around well into late afternoon. He and I talked about many things: Denver’s military and government and population; Mark’s job as a supply runner; Mark’s family and his dying father and his dead mother; more about the horrific things Mark had seen along the way to Indiana; about Mark’s plan to journey back to Colorado—we spoke little of me, and absolutely nothing of Thais.

“Hell yes,” Mark said, reaching over to dig inside his bag. “If you’ve got smokes to trade, then take your pick. But I have to keep my axe and my bowie knife. They’re the only weapons I got.” He unzipped the front of his bulky backpack and rummaged inside.

“I only have a few left,” I said about the cigarettes, “but I’ll trade one for that bottle of baby oil. Then another for the bar of soap.”

“Sure thing,” Mark said right away.

He pulled the bar of soap out first and set it on the ground next to his boots.

“I’ve used the soap,” Mark warned, and placed the trial-size bottle of baby oil next to the soap bar. “Just so you know.”

I nodded.

“And I’ll trade you another cigarette for that first-aid kit.”

Mark pursed his lips contemplatively.

“Well, I don’t know,” he said. “I think I’ll need something more than one cigarette for that.”

“What’s left inside?” I asked. “Open it.”

Mark fished inside the backpack for the first-aid kit. It was small enough to fit in his hand, but packed so full that the zipper holding the material together was close to bursting. He removed each item from the little bag and laid it on the ground for me to see.

“Is that iodine?” Thais asked, hopeful.

Mark nodded, taking the two-ounce bottle into his dirty fingers. “Yeah, and it’s practically full. I’ve only had to use it once.”

He set it back down, then took up a larger bottle, white with black lettering, and a radiation symbol on the front with a red X over it.

“These still have five years left before they expire.”

He tossed the bottle and I caught it, looked at it, read the label, tossed it back.

“I’m not interested in those,” I said. “I don’t plan on being anywhere where anti-radiation tablets are needed.”

“Not going east, huh?” Mark said, setting the bottle back on the ground.

I didn’t answer.

I stood from the top step and descended the remaining three so I could get a better look at the items in the fading sunlight. On the grass were several useful things: little squares of gauze in a plastic baggie, half a roll of dressing tape, an unopened tube of lip balm, a surgical face mask, six Band-Aids, individually sealed packets of alcohol squares, white latex rubber gloves, and a pair of tweezers. The only thing Mark didn’t remove from the kit was a pill bottle with the label scratched off.

“What’s this?” I reached down and plucked the bottle from the bag, turned it at an angle, trying to get an idea.

THAIS & (ATTICUS)

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