[crow]

Someone who had so little practice at reading couldn't be all that quick, right? Lacuna had to hope so, anyway. Those drafts were pretty embarrassing, and she didn't want anyone else to see.

Maple sighed. "I just don't get that stuff," she said. "But... it's like art, right? What you do, I mean. We get painters who come out to do workshops at some of the cabins sometimes. They come in the winter too, real dedicated, and all of them look miserable huddled under all that gear."

[crow]

Maple allowed herself a grin at the memory of their misery, apparently, before continuing. "But it sells well, and the guy who runs it tells me that all his clients talk about needing a change of pace. Maybe that's what you need too, Cuna."

"If this is you trying to talk me into camping," Lacuna began, only to be greeted with Maple's laughter.

"No, but thanks for the idea," she said. Lacuna regretted her choice of words immediately. Maple stopped laughing, though she was still grinning.

[crow]

"What I meant to say was that maybe you should take a break from work, so that when you come back to it you can actually get some of it done," Maple continued. "Take a page out of those cabin guys' books, though maybe not in the middle of winter. I don't know if they found what they needed to when they came out, but there seems to be people going every year, so there has to be something going for that line of thought, right?"

[crow]

She made enough sense, talking like that. It might almost even have convinced Lacuna to give camping another try, if every attempt at camping hadn't been as unambiguously miserable as it always, inevitably was. If she'd ever had a good trip, which apparently was possible, just not for them.

The party, at least, that much of a change of pace she could handle. And she had promised to go anyway. Short of forgetting, she had no excuse for that.

"Right," said Lacuna. "Thanks for coming to get me, then."

[crow]

She was smiling now too, though hers was a bit wry in itself. "And sorry about... you know. It's been a bit of a long month."

"Water under the bridge, Cuna," said Maple. "I figured it was something like that. You know you get a bit cagey when you've been holed up, right?"

Lacuna didn't, but she decided it wasn't a topic worth pursuing. "What time is---" she began, before remembering that she had a perfectly good clock, and that she probably ought to use it.

[crow]

She looked. The time read almost noon. The party wouldn't be til about four in the afternoon, and she didn't have to show up right as it started either. At least Maple had had the sense to give her some lead time.

"So, you want to go for lunch?" said Maple. "You haven't eaten, right?" She was already going over to look in the little fridge that Lacuna kept in her room. Lacuna didn't know what she'd find in there, but it wasn't anything she had touched.

[crow]

It had been a lot of takeout for her lately, because she hadn't felt up to cooking during her slump, and this was probably more than was strictly healthy, for her. Anything in the fridge probably belonged to Ghost, who was still eating like a regular pony.

"Hey, there's a pudding cup in here! You didn't want this, right?" said Maple. She said the second sentence around a mouthful of probably spoon. And pudding. Well... if Ghost asked, she could say Maple did it.

[crow]

For the record, Maple was right, Lacuna didn't want pudding cups. The texture of pudding never sat right with her, every time she'd tried it. But Ghost liked them, and he liked to buy gourmet ones when he could afford it, which was probably what Maple was eating now.

Poor Ghost, she thought. But she hadn't even had the time to intervene, and Ghost wouldn't have wanted a contaminated pudding anyway. Probably. Even if it had been one of his fancy expensive limited edition ones.

[crow]

"Yeah, let's eat," she said, in the interest of preserving the rest of Ghostwriter's snacks, if nothing else. If Maple spent any longer in there, they really were at risk of being poached. "Did you have somewhere in mind?"

Maple poked her head out of the fridge again, this time shutting the door of it behind her. "How about Old Salt's? We could drop by Jack's shop and see if he wants to come with."

Old Salt's was a little diner located not far from where Jack's shop was.

[crow]

What this meant in practical terms was that Jack should have been sick of the place by now, but by the miracle of his metabolism--- or maybe his enthusiasm for fries--- he wasn't. But then, Jack had always been a bit of a city food junkie, probably because it had been expressly forbidden to him growing up.

His family was very much for supporting the country farming way of life, food choices included. There were no big burger chains for them, and no greasy diner food either.

[crow]

He'd stuffed himself silly on the stuff the minute he moved to Palomino Springs. Back when everyone else had been in post-secondary, he had already been running his shop, but even then, he'd managed to eat worse than anyone else. It was a miracle he hadn't ballooned in the past few years, but then, he had a high metabolism.

He also had a nose for getting into mischief, which was probably good exercise. Running away from your angry victims seemed like it would be a workout, anyway.

[crow]

Lacuna  wasn't as perennial about junk diner food, but in this instance even Old Salt's seemed like a better option than whatever she'd been eating lately. A lot of it was reheated delivery food, after she'd forgotten about it and it had gotten cold. At least whatever she'd get at Old Salt's would be nice and hot, the first time.

Well, if his fries weren't basically reheated themselves, anyway, which might be the case. But she couldn't taste the difference, so maybe it didn't matter.

[crow]

"Alright," she said. She walked away from her desk and shook herself off, stretching a bit and feeling her joints pop from having been so stiff for so long. Sitting all day took its toll on everyone, her included. She probably had bad posture too--- no, she definitely did, come to think of it. It didn't help. Her spine felt almost misaligned, for all that she was still young.

"Poor Cuna," said Maple, grinning. "This wouldn't happen to you if you got more exercise, you know."

[crow]

"I'm not going camping with you, Maple," said Lacuna, but it was more of a jibe than a rebuttal at this point, since Maple hadn't actually asked.

For the record, Maple was right about the exercise, but no amount of knowledge would make it any more appealing for Lacuna, just like how Maple hadn't been talked around on books. It wasn't that she had always been out of shape, but given the choice, she did prefer to stay in and read with a nice cup of tea.

[crow]

And now that formal education was over, there wasn't some gym teacher breathing down her neck to make her get out and go to the gym. That was all it took for her to stop.

"Suit yourself," said Maple. She wandered out the door, then looked back expectantly at Lacuna, waiting for her to follow. Probably she didn't trust Lacuna to actually leave otherwise, which she might have protested under other circumstances... But in this case she couldn't exactly blame Maple for the assumption.