“This is way too early to be awake,” Megan complained. “I can't believe I agreed to this.”
“Yeah, well, I can't sleep much anyway,” Jenny returned her attention to the radio, noodling around and getting only noise.
“Sleep,” Megan yawned as she poured some coffee into a tall glass. “How I love thee.”
“There are some eggs ready to go.”
“They're sunny side up,” Megan said, looking at the eggs laying on the frying pan.
“So?”
“So I only eat scrambled.”
Jenny rolled her eyes and continued to fiddle with the radio.
“What are you doing?”
“I can't get it to work this morning. I know reception is bad around here but there's nothing, just a bit of crackling.”
“Let me try,” Megan leaned over Jenny and twisted the tuner on the old radio.
White noise.
“What you think that you have the magic touch that I don't?”
“Of course,” Megan said. “Everything around here is so ancient, the place has been deserted for so long. I'm sure it'll pick up later, it was like that on the day we got here.”
“Yeah, I suppose so.” Jenny pushed the radio away and stared into her coffee cup. Her mind going elsewhere.
“Anyway, that was the whole point of it, wasn't it? Volunteer for the field trip, escape from the world for a long weekend, give you some space after what happened with your parents and everything?”
Jenny shrugged her shoulders. She stared into her coffee cup, eyes welling with tears.
“I'm sorry,” Megan said. “I shouldn't even go there. Are you doing okay?”
“I'm fine,” Jenny said, not looking Megan in the eye.
“You're so not fine, talk to me.”
“I told you already, I didn't sleep well, dreams and all that.”
“I'm an insensitive bitch, okay,” Megan put her finger into a shape of a gun and pointed it at her head. “Maybe talking about it isn't the right thing to do, you know? How long has it been? Four months?”
“Six. I still can't believe they're gone,” Jenny blinked her eyes hard and pounded her cup against the table. “Stupid idiot!”
“Who me?”
“Not you. The guy who fell asleep at the wheel in his ten ton truck. My Dad didn't even have a chance to react. The police said he and Mom died instantly. But I'm not so sure.”
Megan walked over and hugged Jenny. “Don't torture yourself, Jen. Look, let's finish this coffee and head off to the trails. Maybe we'll even find some more slimy stuff today. Remember when we were kids and we used to look for bugs?”
Jenny laughed. “Mom would have been so proud. And my Dad. He would have declared that thing to be a whole new species.”
Megan rolled her eyes. “It was so gross, looked like some mutant grub. We're supposed to be bird-watching and all we're going to be famous for is discovering a mutant slug.”
“It could be worse,” Jenny smiled. “What time do we have to leave today?”
“By mid-day. We get picked up not far from the freeway and its about an hour or so walk to the nearest side road to get a bus. And don't forget we've got to 'leave everything as we found it.'” Megan mimicked a British accent. “So let's get out there and get to it.”