Two girls sit side-by-side eating a can of peaches, one licks her fingertips as the other tips back the can and drinks the syrup. A single stray streak drips down her chin and circles her collar bone to find its way down between her *******. They look at each other; she laughs.

Cormac is looking at the dead roadside trees.
                  It’s going to be ok, he tells me.

It’s going to be ok.