“The Doom Statues” — Chapter 33

Alone in their cabin for the first quiet night in what seems like weeks, Jeremy and Emily are sprawled across the spacious bed, atop the blankets but lying in different directions. Though she had spent a good hour thumbing through this book on mixed media techniques, which she’d found cast casually aside in the back classroom days ago — the room Tom Drucker recently claimed as his primary studio — she is now scrolling through various social media sites, attempting to get caught up and remain in the loop, which is an urge that has come and gone in the month she’s been away. Mostly it’s something she doesn’t even think about anymore, which is itself amazing to fathom. Other times, she does think about reconnecting to that world, but then forcibly throws a net over the social butterfly within, making a conscious effort to remain distant. On a couple of occasions, however, such as tonight, the urge has proven impossible to resist. Even so, Emily considers that this is a perfect and healthy balance, overall, probably healthier than her endless socializing had ever been, all those years back home.

“You know what we really need,” she says to Jeremy, glancing up from her phone now, and over at him, “I wish we had a couch. You know? This is a huge ass cabin, and it’s kind of bare, don’t you think? I would totally love to be curled up on a couch right now.”