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head on downriver, searching for youngish snakes. And soon she closed in on a long, skinny garter stretched to its length on a bed of pebbles. At first, she thought it was dead. Then she guessed it had eaten something and was now digesting. Or maybe just resting.
    “They eat insects whole,” she recalled Thomas saying. And something else, but she’d forgotten some of what he had told.
    How could you know what a snake had been up to?
    The forked tongue of the snake flickered out and in, lightning fast.
    To grab it, move quick but quiet.
    The snake slithered, sensing her, perhaps seeing her. It glided over rocks as Justice stood beside it.
    Don’t let it find a hole.
    Well, pick it up.
    I can’t!
    Yes, you can —it’s what you’ve come to do. Want the boys to think you’re a fool?
    But it’s so awful hard!
    Not when you know it’s just a harmless creature. You don’t mean to hurt it. And it won’t have a mind to hurt you. Go on. Go on!
    Yeah, that’s it.
    She knew better than to make a sudden move. She crouched close to the tail of the snake and placed her hands some six inches above it.
    The garter commenced moving toward the black-water Trace. Never had Justice seen anything crawl so swiftly. Transfixed by its flow and slither, she nearly let it get away.
    Oh, brother!
    Her right hand darted sideways and forward. She caught the snake firmly in back of its head, her face screwed up in a terrible grimace as it struggled to free itself. With her left hand, Justice gently took hold of the tail end. And, quaking inside, she was happy to see that her hands were steady. She had done it.
    Such a thing—oooh!
    Trying not to jerk around, she stood up holding the snake. The garter twisted and slithered in fast motion, trying to get free. Justice held on. Its snake tongue flicked.
    Really, just like some miniature lightning in a tiny space. And they aren’t slimy, Justice thought.
    It felt like a strip of soft leather. Unreasonably, she had expected it to be warm and trembly, sort of like a baby rabbit or hamster. Suddenly, she recalled that snakes were cold-blooded. Sure enough, the garter’s skin felt cool.
    How to get it in my knapsack on Friday? Not this one, but the big one I have to catch for the Snake Race. She needed a large size for its strength, in case the race was long.
    Justice released the snake’s head to let it dangle by its tail.
    See?
    Gazing at it with wonder as it writhed to get loose.
    Just take it by the tail and drop it in the sack!
    All at once, there was a thin, ugly odor rising from the snake. And Justice let go of it.
    “You dirty thing!” It crawled away to disappear at the edge of the river.
    That smell—maybe poison! Justice backed away, looking all around her. There were writhing reptiles everywhere underfoot.
    Out of here!
    And she was running, cutting through the shade as fast as she could without sliding into a snake bed. All she wanted was to get out of the shade into the sun. But the shade didn’t end. It went on and on. Finally, she had sense enough to look up at the sky.
    Wouldn’t you know it?
    Those fluffs of white clouds were now low masses with gray undersides.
    Never trust you again, she thought to the forever sky.
    Justice had seen clouds build this way without raining a drop. The sun peeked through them, lighting the tops of trees nearby and then others farther off. It looked like someone had a light and was flashing it on and off through the dark.
    There was eeriness about the Quinella Trace lands without strong sunlight. It caused Justice to slow down, think vague, disconnected thoughts as she moved cautiously through the high weeds toward the fence. Where she could, she followed the path she had made coming in. There was a low, hot wind now. It made the weeds swoosh in waves around her knees, as if to engulf her. Fancying snakes and leeches crawling to catch her, Justice nearly screamed.
    Nearing the fence, she couldn’t find her bike where she had hidden it. Just