Chapter 23: The Fish Fry

The fish fry took over the whole net shed on the harbor road.

There were long trestle tables under strings of bulbs, and three fryers going in the back, and a hundred people with paper plates.

Alana stood in the doorway in a green wool dress and her mother's old coat.

Henrik stood beside her in a clean white shirt.

She could hear the room through the open door, loud and warm and smelling of oil and lemon.

"We can go home," he said quietly.

"Is that an offer?"

"It's an exit."

She almost laughed.

"You're doing it again."

"I'm doing it once more, on purpose. So you know it's there." His eyes were steady. "Tell me what you want."

"I want to walk in."

"Then walk."

She slid her hand into his and laced her fingers through.

She walked in.

The sound did not stop all at once.

It thinned, table by table, as heads turned.

A woman by the bread paused with the tongs in the air.

Two men near the fryers stopped talking.

A child at the front table said, in a perfectly clear voice, "Is that the lady who's having a baby?"

"Hush," said his mother.

"But Sigrid said..."

"Hush."

Alana kept walking.

She felt every eye on her and she kept her chin level.

Her hand was sweating in his, and his grip never changed.

At the end of the aisle was a table with a paper tablecloth.

The old deckhand sat at the head of it with a pile of fried halibut in front of him.

He looked up, and looked at her, and shifted along the bench.

"Sit," he said gruffly. "There's room."

She sat.

Henrik sat beside her.

The deckhand pushed a plate across the table and a basket of fries after it.

"Eat," he said. "You're eating for two."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me." He bit into a piece of fish. "It's free."

A little of the noise came back.

It was not the old easy noise.

It was careful and lowered, and she could feel the whole room watching its own plates.

Across the shed a family got up from a bench.

The father put on his coat and did not look their way.

The mother gathered the children, and they went out through the side door.

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