Later that evening, Kali found Dema's old boat hook by the door. The wood had worn smooth where her hands had gripped it.
"Does anyone still know how to get a family off a roof?"
"Some of us. Why?"
Kali ran her thumb along the handle. "It occurs to me I've made myself rather difficult to do without."
Dema gave her an odd look. "Well, yes. I thought that was what you wanted."
The irritating thing was that she had wanted it. She liked arriving to find herself expected. She liked that a room went quiet when someone asked her a question, because everyone believed she could answer it. And until the fisherman had shown her the meadow, she would have said she had earned that confidence.
She stayed to wash the dishes. Dema, at least, had no difficulty finding work for her that an ordinary woman could have done.
The matter came to a head during a dry summer.
