Chapter 13: That's My Guy

The pot was still rocking on its side when Katja read the comment out loud.

"Stay off the edge, Katja. I mean it."

Her voice came out flat, the way it did when she read her own rules.

Harvey did not look at her. He looked at the stew.

Forty people stood in the supper line holding tin cups, and every one of them became interested in the pine tree.

"Everyone look at the pine," Dot said, and raised the ladle. "Now."

Nobody argued.

Katja turned to Teddy.

"Did you tell Harvey about the choir?"

"What choir?" said Teddy.

"I quit it when I was nine. I said so once, in episode eleven."

"I've watched episode eleven nine times," Teddy said. "You never said anything about a choir. I'd remember. I would have made a clip."

Katja turned back around.

"You told me Teddy told you," she said.

"I did," Harvey said.

"Teddy didn't."

"No," he said. "He didn't."

He opened his mouth, and she watched him reach for a fact.

"A black bear can smell a stew pot from two miles off," he said. "Which is, um. Relevant."

"Harvey."

"Yes."

He stopped there. It was the first time she had ever watched him run out of words in front of other people and not look for more.

"How long have you known it was me?" she asked.

"Since the plank."

He said it to the ground, and then he made himself look up.

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