Fathom Read Free Page A

have enough settings left for the party; but she knew her aunt had plenty of money, so there was probably more dinnerware waiting wherever the broken plates had come from. It must not be a problem.
    She let Bernice lead her out of the courtyard, and together they wandered among the jungle-thick trees back out to the dirt strip that passed for a road.
    “Nee-uh,” Bernice said her cousin’s name with an exaggerated snap. “That’s a weird name. I don’t like it. I want to call you something else.”
    “Then I guess you don’t expect me to answer.”
    Bernice reached into a pocket in her skirt and pulled out a silver cigarette case. “You’re
my
guest. I’ll call you whatever I want. Nia,” she said again, not calling the name but turning it over in her mouth as if she were trying to tell how it tasted.
    “It’s short for Apollonia. Use that, if you’d rather,” Nia suggested. Then she said, “Give me one of those, if you don’t mind.”
    “Certainly.”
    Nia accepted a skinny white cigarette and let Bernice light it. They stopped together in a patch of shade and puffed together in silence until Bernice spoke again. “Now where exactly are you
from
?”
    Nia checked a nearby tree for large insects and, seeing none, she leaned against it. “Tallahassee.”
    “Where’s that?”
    “Up north, on the mainland. Up in the panhandle.”
    “Is it like this island?”
    She thought about it. “Yes and no. We’re in the middle of a forest there, and we’re a long way from the beach. But it’s hot, and the greenery’s the same.”
    “But it’s a city, right?”
    “A city? It’s barely a town.”
    “Hmm.” She acted like she was going to say something else, but instead she twitched her head and swatted madly. “Could you—something’s stuck in my hair!”
    Her arms flapped like a wet dog’s ears while Nia held her head steady enough to detangle a buzzing beetle. When it was free, Bernice fluffed and combed her short shiny hair with her fingers.
    Nia played with the bug and tried not to act jealous. She’d never had the nerve to cut her own hair short; it was kept off her neck with a limp brown braid. Her mother would have a fit if she ever cut it; and besides, she didn’t have any curls to fluff anyway.
    “What is that thing? Will it sting me?”
    “It’s just a june bug,” Nia said as it launched off her hand with a hum. “They don’t sting anybody. And they’re not nasty like the palmetto bugs.”
    “What are those?”
    “They’re roaches bigger than your thumb. And they
fly
.”
    Bernice shuddered and clutched herself. “I’ve seen big roaches before. We have them all over the place in the city. I just didn’t know they lived anywhere
outside
. Forget this. Let’s go back to the cottage. The less time I spend outdoors, the better. Then again—” She scowled and changed her mind. “—Antonio’s in there. That son of a bitch.”
    “You really don’t like him much, do you?”
    “I haven’t got the words.”
    They crushed out their cigarettes in the sandy dirt and meandered along a path that alternately widened and tightened to accommodate the trees that no one had yet cut down.
    “That’s funny.” Nia dusted her hands off on her skirt. “I thought I heard a bunch of good epithets back there at the courtyard. What was all that about, anyhow?”
    She grunted something between a cough and a chuckle. “Epithet,” she said, like she hadn’t heard the rest. “What’s that, a curse word or something?”
    “Yeah. A curse word or something.”
    “Then just say ‘curse word.’ I thought you came from a farm. You don’t talk like it.”
    Nia said, “Sorry I’m not as dumb as you expected,” and she waited for Bernice to change the subject again. Their arrival at the cottage gave her plenty of opportunity.
    “This is it,” she announced. “This is where we’ve been staying while the house was getting finished. And that’s Antonio. You don’t have to talk to him if you