6
Colin watched her sleep.
He’d offered the couch, but she didn’t want to mess it up with her soot-stained clothes. Instead, she landed in his back-porch hammock and was out in seconds. He parked himself in an Adirondack chair on the back porch and again took in the night.
The stars that he’d been watching to the east, were blocked to the west—the direction Tori had arrived from—by dark clouds. They weren’t black, as clouds usually were at night, but glowed red along the bottoms as if they still caught the last of the long-past sunset.
Fire. They glowed red with fire. The hints of wood smoke from this morning were more constant, though still swirled aside by the gentle night breezes. Close, but not too close. Staying far away, he hoped.
He should go inside. Pack his notes and laptop i
