#36 In the Dust

for that. She had water in the trunk. In jugs. There was lots. China had to carry one. She guessed that the criteria must have had something to do with their hierarchy, because there were four, she carried the heaviest one, and Liz carried none; she made all the decisions and barked anytime someone strayed from the road. Liz kept harping that if the store-guy came looking for them, and if he was going to find them, then they would have to stick to the map. It was hot. China thought for sure she was going to die. Thad and Jeremy hugged each other, so they must have thought they were going to die too. It was so hot. They trudged on, the vehicle was just a spec in the distance, and the dust made a cloud around them. Liz made Al carry the water jug with one hand while she squeezed the other. He didn’t complain. She was afraid too. China felt so lonely.

China picked up a gecko. She saw it scurry behind a rock when she was going pee. They took turns; first the girls, and then the boys. The boys all did it at the same time, but the girls watched out for each other. Finally, it was her turn, and she marveled at it while she was peeing. It had tried to hide from her when she reached for it, but she saw its tail sticking out from behind the rock. She had her pants pulled down she went for it anyway. China fell down. She rolled, in the dust, with her pants around her ankles, and the gecko in her hand, protecting it by forming a hard circle with her fingers that gradually got smaller. She made like a cave for it with her hand. That way, it would be safe, but still stay caught. China got up, pulled her pants up, walked over to the water jug, picked it up with one hand, then walked to the boys. Liz was already there. China showed them what she had, and told them she wanted to keep it. Jeremy told her that she should, and took her jug of water. Now he had three, one being his, the second was Thad’s, and the third, now, being hers. Liz said it wasn’t very far, according to the map, and they would be back at the store.

Back at the store, they sent a tow truck for their vehicle, and China hid the gecko from the store-guy. She knew she wasn’t supposed to take him out of the preserve. Liz was very stern with the car rental company, got everything reimbursed, and then some. The car rental company gave them a free ride home, stopping at the grocery store. At home, they ate corn-on-the-cob and steak, and of course, there was a meatless steak for China. She ate it, but didn’t really want it. She chanced it by asking for the hot sauce. She poured it on until it was dripping, butter too. When it got all over her face, she wiped it with her sleeve. Probably, there was some snot too because it was making her sniffle. They copied her.

When she woke, the first thing she looked for was the gecko. There it was, alive, and still in the dry aquarium that Liz gave her. It was stuck to the glass. It had sticky feet. It probably tried to get out, but there was a lid. China lined the aquarium with moss, sticks, and rocks, she found in the backyard. II could climb on those. She packed, took it too, and Al took her to the train station. She was tired. Knowing that she might not see her brothers for real again, she stayed up later than them. She was right, and they went to bed together. At the station, Al presented her with a book on gecko care that he and Liz had bought for her. China thanked him and told him she would study it all the way home. And she did.

At the border, China lied. She knew, from the book, that the gecko didn’t like to be handled, but they probably weren’t going to let her take him to Canada, so she took him out of the aquarium, and hid him in her shirt. He liked it in there, so stayed hidden, and even though she couldn’t really tell, which she kept in her curtained-off sleeping space, she decided it was a boy. They asked her if she brought back any plants, animals, or insects but she said she didn’t. They asked her about the aquarium, and she said Al and Liz gave it to her, because she was thinking of buying some goldfish when she got back home. They took her sticks,