The Land of the Shadow by Lissa Bryan

they both took a seat, their feet coming to a natural rhythm of pushing the swing in a gentle glide. They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the crickets and the creaking song of the frogs in the swamp.
    “But this isn’t the usual getting-to-know-you chat,” she said, a small smile tugging at her lips. “You’re not the type to come over for small talk and a cup of coffee.”
    “No.” Justin rubbed the back of his neck. “And I don’t want you to feel like this is an interrogation, but you can imagine I’d want to know people in the community where my wife and baby are living.”
    Pearl’s smile widened. “You love them, don’t you? I wouldn’t have pegged you as the lovey-dovey sort, but it’s all over your face when you look at them.”
    “They’re everything to me. This community is for them. It’s what Carly wanted to have for our daughter, and so we worked to create it. So Dagny could grow up in a ‘normal’ world.”
    “I can almost hear the quotation marks in your voice.”
    He shrugged. “This is Carly’s vision of the new America. She’s convinced it’s what we’re supposed to do, and so I’m going to help her.”
    “But you’re not convinced?”
    Justin shrugged again. “I don’t know if I’m much of a believer in that fate stuff. Carly’s not religious, but she has this notion that we’ve been led by something to this place, and to this position as its leaders. And she’s so damn convinced of it, she almost makes me a believer. We’re partners, and partners work as a team, so I’m going to do whatever it takes to build this place into the vision she has. That includes picking the right people for it.”
    Justin gave Pearl an assessing look and was pleased to see she didn’t fold under it and look away. He didn’t mince words. “I’ve got an impression of you as someone strong and capable.”
    She gave a small laugh. “I wasn’t always.”
    He snorted. “Who the fuck was? Everyone who survived this shit had to change, and fast. Those that didn’t are now bones beside the highway. But I think you’ve got the steel inside you. The steel that makes you a survivor. And I think you’ve got a sense of honor or ethics—whatever you want to call it. I just need to feel you out a little more before I feel entirely comfortable.”
    Pearl gave him an assessing look of her own. “Let me ask you this—why didn’t you bring Carly for this?”
    He gave a small, rueful smile. “Because it would be like this afternoon when you came over to the house to help with the soapmaking. You girls would chat and laugh and tell each other stories, and I’d probably learn the name of your first boyfriend and how many siblings you once had. Maybe pick up a few clues here and there, but . . . Carly gets to know people in her own way. Don’t get me wrong—she’s got good instincts of her own, and she picks up far more than you’d realize. But I don’t want to be subtle and deduce the way you think from the anecdotes you tell. I want to be direct. And I think you do, too. What I want to know is who you are now.”
    She nodded. “I can understand that.”
    “Carly told me you were from Los Angeles.”
    It was a moment before Pearl answered. “Yeah.”
    “If it was anything like Chicago, you had a hell of a time getting out.” Justin had brought a lamp with him, but he decided against using it. Let her have the comforting cover of darkness. “One of our Watchers, Grady, was from Chicago. He told me a little about it. I don’t think he wants to talk about it any more than you seem to want to.”
    “There’s a lot of things I don’t want to talk about,” Pearl said, and her voice was as blunt as a dropped stone. “Justin, listen, I know you need to do this—”
    “I have a lot I don’t want to talk about, either.” Justin considered for a moment and decided it might make her more comfortable if he jumped in first. “I’ll tell you something. I used to be in a military