the weight of living; c.g.

[1.8]: missing

Sometime in the afternoon, the groups returned. They came with a bounty of supplies, providing hope for the rest of us. Right away, everybody got to work organizing and storing the supplies.

My shoulder was killing me by the time we were done. I joined Grace on a pew where she was using the crayons and paper that I found for her.

"What're you drawing?" I leaned over her shoulder and glanced at the paper.

"The family." She responded, never looking up from the page. I looked closer and began recognizing the figures. Right in the middle, her and I stood, holding hands. She even drew a little bandage on my shoulder and the scar on my forehead.

"Do you like it?" She took a second away from her drawing to look up at me, a desire for approval in her eyes.

"I love it." I gazed back down at the paper, where she was drawing Carol next to her.

"I'm gonna show Rick at dinner." She grinned excitedly.

"I'm sure he'll love it." I reassured her, then slid off the pew onto my feet.

"I'm gonna go help with dinner." I patted her hair, lingering for a moment before walking away to the table of food.

At dinner, there seemed to be a festive mood in the air. Laughter seemed to echo around the church, a cozy orange light filling the room. Unlike last night, I forced myself to sit nearer to the group. Maybe if I made an effort to include myself, I could get rid of that gnawing feeling in my stomach.

"Did you finish your drawing?" I asked Grace as she sat down in between me and Maggie. She beamed at me, pulling it out of her jacket pocket and handing it to me.

My eyes scanned the paper, taking in the likenesses of everyone depicted. She even included the people we met only yesterday, drawing them with love already. After a bit, I passed it back into her hands.

"You should go give it to him." I nudged her shoulder with my arm.

"What if he doesn't like it?" Her eyes were wide as she tilted her head to look at me.

"He's going to. Go." I gave her a little push, aiding her in getting to her feet. With only one small look back at me, she moved across the pews to where Rick sat with Judith.

I couldn't hear their conversation over everyone else's talking, but I could see her shy pass of the paper over to him.

"It'll mean a lot to him." Maggie leaned over to me, eyes bright.

"She put a lot of work into it." I responded. She worked on that picture all afternoon, perfecting every stick figure.

I glanced back at Rick and Grace. They were hugging, Grace's small hands on Rick's back. My lips tugged into a smile as I watched. They broke apart and Grace said something else that made him smile, then she walked back to me.

"I think he liked it." She plopped back down next to me, a smile permanently present on her face.

"I told you so." I smirked, and went back to eating dinner.

Partway through dinner, Abraham, the big red-headed guy, stood up, commanding attention. I hardly knew him, but his outward demeanor had already gained my respect.

I was only halfway listening for the first part of his speech, but his mention of Washington brought my attention back to the conversation at hand. He was looking for people to go with him and Eugene and Rosita and Tara. Apparently Glenn and Maggie had already agreed to go, so they had a pretty big group already.

I was half-tempted to volunteer to go with them, to give myself a purpose in this world other than survival. But I knew it would be safer for Grace to stay with the rest of the group, so I kept my mouth shut and finished my dinner.