Chapter 195

• Returning
• I missed the journey home, thankfully, not by intention but because my body passed out on me without my having a say. I intended to lay on the bed near Carmen for a while in case she needed to talk to someone to support her for something I’d experienced. Somehow sleep took over, and my last memory was gazing at her lonely figure across from me. Last night’s tension, the camping out in the open air, and no real shut-eye. The past few days' emotional heavinesses just kicked my ass, and maybe the growing lives inside me too. The next thing I know, I’m waking to subtle thuds on the truck walls and jump awake, startled by the rattle as though something is caving in through the roof over my head.
• Carmen is sitting on the other bed, her knees pulled into her chest, looking like she slept the whole time and didn’t switch places with Meadow to drive at any point. She seems to be staring at the back window, her expression blank, her face pale from dried tears and showing nothing of any emotion. I turn to follow her gaze and see the fog thinning across the glass and containing the dark figures of wolves once again, trying to get in with running jumps. I realize we’re back at the homestead already. The banging is the second wave of the wolves attacking our truck, so I slept for more than seven hours straight.