Page 149 of Shatter

He's got a cardboard box in his arms, the kind printer paper comes in, overflowing with receipts and loose ledger pages, a rubber band snapping off one bundle as he walks in.

He doesn't ask if he can come in.

He crosses the room and sets the box down on the bed next to her, right beside her hip, hard enough the mattress bounces.

"The club's books are a disgrace." He pushes his half-moon glasses up his nose. "Thirty years of Rati keeping receipts in a coffee can and Runes paying bar tabs out of the dues. I'm too old for it."

Anni doesn't move.

"I'll pay you twice what Aziza does." Dag folds his arms. "You start whenever you're ready. Box stays here till you are."

He turns and walks out.

I stand by the door and watch her.

For a long time, nothing.

Then her hand comes out from under the blanket.

Slow, like it's moving underwater, it reaches over and touches the edge of the box.

Her fingers find a crumpled receipt on top and smooth it flat against the cardboard.

She reads it.

She makes a small sound, almost a laugh.

"Forty-two dollars at a Waffle House in Perry." Her voice comes out cracked and rusty from not using it. "At three in the morning. Filed under business expense."

"That'd be Ulf." My throat's so tight I can barely get it out.

She sits up.

For the first time in four days, she sits up, pushing the blanket off her shoulders, her hair a copper tangle hanging in her eyes, and pulls the box into her lap.

Her fingers are already sorting.

Crumpled receipts in one pile, ledger pages in another.

I sit down on the floor with my back against the door and watch her work.

I don't let her see me wipe my eyes.

***

Late in the evening, she's in the bathroom a long time.

I hear the water running, then stopping.

"Can you get Tindra?" Her voice comes through the door, low and steady.

Tindra comes with her sewing kit and a pair of long silver shears, and she goes into the bathroom and shuts the door.

I sit on the bed and listen.

Low voices, then the snip of scissors, slow at first, then steady.

Tindra laughs once, wet, and says something I can't make out.