I smiled. “You’d better not let Fohi hear you calling him that.”

Rob grinned back. “If you guys are okay with it, I’m going to go back there and get him, go talk to Kowi and Trip, and then get Peter, Ronald, and Jamal and head south to join you. You taking the highway?”

I looked at Winky and she nodded. I answered, “Yeah. We’ll travel from before sunrise to noon every day to avoid the canners. We’ll sleep in the brush off the side of the highway.”

“I don’t want to pass you up. We ride faster than you guys.”

Winky joined in. “We’ll leave you a sign of where we are. Look for the bird.”

“What bird?” I asked, picturing Nina in my mind. That was another issue to deal with. I wondered if Bodo knew where she was, and I hoped he wouldn’t give me a hard time about leaving here without her if he didn’t.

“Like the tattoos you’ve seen on some of the guys. I’ll use a coal stick to draw one on the shoulder of the highway. Just keep your eyes peeled. I’ll try to do it near a mile marker sign if I can.”

Rob nodded. “Okay. Listen, I’m going to go now. I don’t want to waste any time.”

I waved him away. “Go. We’ll be fine.”

“Grab some food on your way out,” said Winky at his back. “And be careful with Trip!”

Rob waved over his head, not looking back.

We watched him go over to a table and grab some hunks of food he tossed into his mouth. He stopped to talk to Kiersten and then left. We said nothing until the door on the side of the property closed behind him.

“So,” said Winky, looking at me now, “I guess we have some things to look forward to.” She smiled at me, her spunky personality shining through.

“Yeah. Like a canner war.”

She shrugged. “More like canner annihilation. We’ll be ready for them.”

“You think so?” I asked, not entirely sure I agreed with her.

“Yep. We have friends here now and in Kahayatle. We’ll make new ones on our way. And we’re going to build a fortress no one can enter. I’ll bet the barbed wire and walls are already there.”

I smiled absently, contemplating my sad, limpy boyfriend and the state of our affairs right now. I’d mistakenly thought life was going to be easy and that things I’d done far from here would have no consequences out of their immediate area and time. I’d counted on the fact that there were no communication systems up anymore. I guess I forgot about the pony express. Maybe they weren’t riding ponies anymore, but they were definitely getting around and spreading messages. And we need to do the same.

Winky and I alternated between eating bits of food and getting Bodo sobered up. I tried not to pay too much attention to the festivities that included lots of what looked like Alejandro being passed around. He didn’t seem to care too much, so I let it go out of my mind. I needed all my concentration to get Bodo to have a normal conversation, anyway.

When he was finally ready to leave a few hours later, just before sunrise, we dragged him out of the compound, taking one of their bikes with us, promising that if they ever came down our way, we’d give it back.

Kiersten walked us to the gate. “Good luck down at the prison. Who knows, maybe someday we’ll come for visit. Which one are you going to?”

“There’s more than one?”

“Yeah. There are several. The biggest one is Everglades, not far from here. You could probably get there in two days. If you’re looking to set up a new community that’s pretty big, I’d go there.”

I took her offered hug. “Thanks. That’s where we’re going, then.” I pulled away so she could hug Winky. “I don’t know how big the community will be, but I guess we should be prepared for the best, right? And we’d love for you to visit. That would be nice.” I wasn’t just saying that either. I had a lot of respect for someone who could build a family like she’d done. The odds were against a group of girls making it on their own, but they’d managed, and it was obvious it was because of the strong leadership they had in Kiersten.

Melody came dancing out of the house, running over to us, all smiles. “Goodbye, girls! I just wanted to give you some big, fat kisses to thank you for bringing Joshua into our family.”

“Joshua?” asked Winky.

“That’s what I’ve named him. He looks like a Joshua, don’t you think?”

We both nodded our heads. I wasn’t sure that I really agreed, but it didn’t matter. The baby was in loving hands, and that’s what he needed. Hopefully, his nutty mother would never see him and recognize him as her own, and this girl who lost her baby would find a way to heal from it with Joshua’s presence in her life.

“Thanks for the food. And for making the trade,” said Winky.

“Yeah, thanks,” I agreed. “Bodo appreciates it, too.” I looked over at him, hoping he wouldn’t disagree, but he was too busy staring at a mosquito that was flying two inches from his face to pay any attention to us. He was still having trouble getting sober and keeping his focus on the conversation, and if it weren’t so sad, it’d be hilarious.

Winky started laughing, only stopping when I whacked her on the shoulder.

“Come on, Bodo. Time to go,” I said, taking his arm and shaking it a little.

He came out of his dreamland and pushed his bike forward and through the side door in the wall. As soon as we were through and the door closed behind us, he said, “Dat was a close one, Bryn. I wass almost da man meat of dose war-girls. Dey said dat if I didn’t have the sex with them, dey would cut off my man parts. Andt I like my man-parts too much. I hope dat doesn’t make you mad at me, dat I was going to choose to keep my parts.”

I worked really hard not to laugh. “No, Bodo. I’m cool with it. I would have done the same thing.”

“Okay good.” He stopped his bike and looked up into the sky, gazing from left to right, back and forth.

I was afraid we’d lost him to his drugged-out confusion again, but as soon as he spoke, I knew that wasn’t the case.

“Before we go back, I need to find Nina.”

I was glad the door had already closed behind us, hoping they’d moved away from it enough not to hear us anymore. I didn’t know if Bodo had talked about his bird with them, but all we needed was for them to stop us on the way out, thinking we were hiding something they should know about.

“Do you know where she is?” I asked.

“I hope she iss nearby. But I don’t haff my straps for my arm, so I cannot call her yet.”

“Here,” said Winky. “Is this what you need?” She handed over a small bag that one of the girls had given her before we left. Bodo looked inside and pulled out his leather straps with a smile on his face.

“Excellent. Now, all I need to do is to call her.” He frowned. “I don’t normally do it without my harmonica.”

“Problem solved,” I said, pulling it out of my front pocket. “Call away. You have five minutes. After that, we leave, Nina or no Nina.”

“You are very bossy today, Bryn,” he said frowning at me. Then he smiled at the instrument in his hands. “How did you find dis? I lost it on da day we rescued da kids.”

“Winky found it in the grass, where you’d been fighting someone.”

He looked at her and held it up in a salute. “Thank you, Winky. I owe you something in return. One day you tell me and I will give it to you. Dat’s not a problem.”

“Hmmm, sounds interesting,” said Winky, smiling at me.

I pointed a playful warning finger at her before replying to Bodo’s assessment of my bossiness. “Yeah, well today’s the day I learned I have canners on my butt. So we don’t have time to hang around and get caught here.”

“Let’s ride down da street a little bit,” he said. “I don’t want dem to see my bird and change dare minds about da man meat.”

“Could you please stop saying man meat?” asked Winky. “I keep picturing your private parts when you say that, and it just feels wrong with Bryn standing right there.”

I laughed. “It better feel wrong whether I’m standing here or not, Winky.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and then smiled.

“Well, do you haff anudder word I can use? Becausse when someone wants to have da sexy time with you ten times a day with all da different girlss, den you feel like a piece of meat. And I’m a man, so dat’s da man meat.”

“Fine,” said Winky, rolling her eyes, “man meat it is.”

We rode together and waited while Bodo called for Nina. After five minutes of trying, she came, but only as close as the nearest palm tree. She refused to come to his arm.

“She iss upset with me,” he said quietly.

I could tell he was sad, so I tried to think of something I could say to make him feel better. “Maybe she’ll change her mind, after she’s had time to forgive you for ignoring her.”

“Dey are not like people, Bryn. Sometimes it’s chust a small thing to us, but a very bigk thing to dem.”

“Well, regardless, we have to go,” said Winky. “I’m getting nervous. Peter and them are waiting, probably wondering what the heck happened.”

“Rob would have been there by now. I’m sure they know.”

“Will they still be there?” asked Winky. “Or do you think they’ll move on without us?”

“I have no idea. But we need to go find out, before the canners are awake.” I looked over at Bodo who was carefully wrapping up his leather to put in his pants. “Come on, let’s ride. Just blow your harmonica now and again and hopefully she’ll follow you like she did before.”

Bodo said nothing, just looked up at her sadly. She shrieked one time at him and then took off. I lost her when she went over the rooftops beside us.

We pedaled back to the shell shop with Bodo between us tooting his harmonica every once in a while. He was like a crazy drunk driver, swerving all over the road. He used us as bumpers, keeping himself as straight as possible. His technique only caused two near-accidents and forced about twenty cuss words to come flying out from both sides, but eventually we made it back to the shop where Bodo got off his bike and promptly vomited in the front door entryway.

“Well. It’s nice to see you, too,” said Peter, wryly, standing back a bit from the doorway. Jamal and Ronald were behind him, both of them with looks of disgust on their faces. Buster tried to get near enough to investigate but Peter shoved him away with his foot. “Don’t even think about it, Buster, you little piglet.”

“I’m sorry, Peter,” moaned Bodo. “I had some very badt drugs. I feel very sick right now.”

Peter stepped over the nastiness and moved Bodo away a few paces before hugging him. “Glad you’re back, you big dummy. We missed you. And don’t you dare vom on me or I’ll kick your butt.”

Bodo patted him weakly on the shoulder. “I missed you, too. Every time I doodled, I thought of your nice face.”

Peter pushed him away and smacked his chest. “Rude.”

“What?” asked Bodo. “Dey let me doodle. Dey even had paint and brushes. I painted your handsome face on da wall dare.”

Jamal and Ronald were looking at all of us and then each other, confused.

“Don’t ask,” I advised them. “Are you guys ready to leave?”

“Yes,” said Peter, “are we ever.”

“What’d you guys do while you waited?” asked Winky.

“Nothing,” said Peter.

“Not exactly nothing,” said Ronald, smiling. He schooled his expression to be bland as soon as Peter looked over.