AYANNA
Mona’s walking beside me on the path back to Hanlan’s Point. Our pace is hesitant, as if neither of us wants to be seen walking faster than the other. Neither of us has spoken since the … I’m just trying to keep my eyes open. I can’t imagine how we appear to everyone else, tourists on bikes, picnic families. Tired. Emptied. Like we witnessed a m******e.
For what feels like only the second time today, my mouth opens and an unknown voice comes out, only this time it’s mine.
“We got to the Super Bowl three years in a row.”
Mona’s mind must be somewhere else. She nods, then turns and says, “That’s football, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, so … I’m not sure what that means.” She says it as if I’m speaking in code.
The lake and its steely darkness is ahead of us, rippling and alive; on this
