"They're probably passed out from the heat," Veronica suggests, and glances down the length of the river. There are a few dots drifting further downstream that could be people if they're not wildlife. Somebody who wanted more privacy, maybe.

"I keep wanting to open the paper and see when we're going to get a break from it." Nearly a year in, and somehow that's still her instinct. "I think it'd be easier to take if I knew when it was going to end."