Chapter Nine
Mom lay on the couch, her hair splayed around her while she slept. Her empty bottle of water and still-full bowl of mush sat on the floor beside her, like she’d been too tired to eat or make it to her bed.
Mari grabbed Mom’s bottle, and I carried our jugs to the bedroom. We whispered our way through setting out the bottles.
Mari steadied her bottle as I filled it, muttering a constant string of warnings about the bedroom floor being bumpier than the front room floor and how easily the bottle could wobble and tip.
“You should take some water from under the floor for trading.” Mari twisted the lid onto her bottle and opened mine.
“I’m not going tonight. I have enough credits on my band to go without trading for a bit. I want to wait for things in the dark corridor to settle
