Chapter 8: Thunder

The storm reached the valley before they reached the gate.

The lane was a brown stream by the time Meng Yuhe stopped the car.

The water was running over the top of the culvert.

"You can't drive out through that," said Lu Qing.

"I can see that."

"You'll have to sleep in the hut."

He had said it without thinking, and then he thought, and his ears got hot.

"There's a cot," he added. "It's a camp cot. It's for ducklings. I mean, for when the heater breaks."

"Thank you," said Meng Yuhe.

He said it so simply that Lu Qing could not find the joke in it.

They ran through the rain with Grandpa's coat over both their heads.

They fell in at the hut door laughing, and the thunder shook the roof.

The cot was against the north wall under the shelf of tackle.

Lu Qing put a blanket on it, and a pillow that smelled of old sun.

He handed Meng Yuhe the one dry towel.

He made tea on the gas ring and talked to the kettle about the meeting.

He said what he should have said to Uncle Qian, and then what he would say next time.

He said what the aunties had told him in the hall.

"Pond Day," he finished. "I have to win a fishing contest on a pond where the system doesn't work."

"It's the communal pond. It's out of range. I haven't caught a fish by myself since I was twelve."

"I'll fish for you," said Meng Yuhe.

"You can't. You're not from the village."

"Did Wenjie say it had to be someone from the village?"

Lu Qing opened his mouth, and shut it.

"He did not," he said slowly. "He said the pond's entry. He didn't say whose."

"Then I'll enter."

"You've caught three fish in your life."

"And all of them were large," said Meng Yuhe.

Lu Qing laughed so hard that he spilled the tea.

When he had stopped, Meng Yuhe was sitting on the cot with his cup in both hands, looking at him.

It was a steady look and it was not cold.

Lu Qing decided that he had spilled tea on purpose, to have something to wipe.

The thunder came again, nearer.

Lu Qing crossed the hut and took the cup out of his hands and set it on the shelf.

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