4338.212 · July 31, 2018 AD
Coriander, Coils, and the Calm at the Centre
It starts with bare soil where coriander used to grow. Hoof prints. A trail of destruction. Vincent has struck again, and Karen is the one left to drag him back into line. But the goat is only the beginning. By midday, Beatrix will confess something that makes livestock management look like a holiday. And Karen will find herself wondering—not for the first time—what exactly she signed up for when she agreed to build a life in the dust.
The day begins with bare soil where coriander used to grow. Hoof prints in the dirt. A trail of destruction leading straight to the supply tent, where Vincent the goat has made himself at home atop a ruined mattress, chewing with the satisfaction of a creature who has never once faced consequences.
Karen hauls him to the Drop Zone. Secures the tether. Thinks the crisis is contained.
Then Beatrix tells her about Maggie.
A reticulated python. Lost somewhere between the Portal and the camp. Beatrix has been searching for hours. She doesn't know which direction Maggie went. She doesn't know if the snake is still in the Drop Zone, or already threading through sleeping quarters, or coiled beneath someone's cot.
Karen can't leave Vincent staked out like an offering. She drags him back to camp, again, and finds Chris waiting with the particular expression of a man who has cleaned up one disaster and is bracing for the next.
But Chris doesn't panic. He never does. He plans. He problem-solves. He remains the steady centre while everything else spins.
And Karen remembers, not for the first time, why she married him.
