She could look out at the fishing boats moored at the pier. I think she liked to imagine that Dad would be getting off one of them and come to join us...for brunch. I’d tried to take her to some of the other nice restaurants in town for Sunday brunch, but when asked, she always suggested the Fish House.We talked about our lives the past week and I told her a bit about the work I was doing at EFC. I didn’t tell her I was undercover, but I did suggest that it was temporary to fill a specific need. "Follow, follow, follow." The bugs appeared to be gesturing to the underbelly of the ship. She could see a hatch open, creatures entering and leaving like the mouth of a giant ant hole. Although they didn't drag her she felt them slowly edging her towards it. She crossed her fingers locked behind her back and decided she had no choice but to accept.Inside the ship she struggled to stand the corridor low and at an angle. The bugs helped steady her and she had a nauseating image of nature. I woke up around four, my eyeballs feeling as if they were glued to my eyelids and the contacts I left in. A primitive alarm, if you would--had I taken them out, I would have been dead to the world when Maddie called. Some ice-cold Coke drove the last vestiges of sleep from my mind, and I decided to get some work done. Paying bills, vacuuming, scrubbing the tub--any kind of mindless work that kept me in the apartment. The repetitive motions gradually calmed me down from the nervous wreck I woke. My hands felt oppressively empty without her. As I was musing upon this, she hopped in and closed the door behind her.I helped her back to her bed, this time holding her more tightly. The symphony of moans continued. She seemed to feel comfortable with me, or maybe she wasn't paying attention to me because of the pain in her ankle."Thank you," she said, and pecked me on the cheek before slumping down on her bed."Let me see your ankle," I said."Nope," she shook her head, her eyes twinkling.