Snow by Wheeler Scott

line of her ribs, the bony ridge running down the center of her chest. She took one of his hands and put it against her skin. It was paper thin and hot under his fingers. "Look, I could just keep it here," he said.
    "And you could use it whenever you wanted. Or not. I, um, didn't mean to upset you. Can I move my hand now?"

    "You don't want a go," she said, surprise in her voice, and held up the tea. "Then what's this for?"

    "Drinking."

    "Drinking," she said slowly.

    "You know, it's tea. I just -- the leaves you have are old and I thought you might like some new ones. What did you think it was?"

    "Tea."

    "Oh. Then why did you --?"

    She shook her head, started lacing her shirt back up. "Honey," she said. "I'm starting to think what you said about Alec finding you in the snow is true. You're like a just hatched chick.
    Buying me tea for no reason!"

    "You could share it with me."

    She grinned. "Not so wet behind the ears after all. Come over tomorrow and we'll have a cup."

    "Okay," he said and smiled at her. "Tomorrow."

    She stared at him for a moment. "Saints," she said a shade breathlessly. "Alec is a lucky one, even with you being as strange as you are. I bet the first time you met you snagged him with that smile."

    David shook his head. "He kicked me."

    Gladys laughed. "Why on earth did he do that?"

    "He thought I was dead."

    Gladys laughed again, then coughed once more. "Hell," she said when she was done, wheezing loudly. "You really are something."

    Alec returned when it was dark, his face drawn and his hands caked with dark sparkling dust, one arm dangling strangely by his side. He looked surprised to see David, started to smile and then said, "You're still here," surprise in his voice and a strange look on his face.

    "I made dinner," David said.

    "You made dinner." Now Alec sounded nervous.

    David served gingerbread. Gingerbread and potatoes. Alec grinned at the potatoes--David had baked them, then split them open and filled them with tiny salted fish--and laughed when David told him about what Gladys had said before he left to go to the square. He'd laughed more when David told him about the tea, said, "She hasn't changed a bit," and then, more quietly, "It was nice, what you did for her. She deserves more kindness than most show her." And then he ate most of the gingerbread.

    "So how did you get all this?" he asked.

    "I went to the square."

    "I know that," he said with a smile. "What I mean is how did you pay for it? Did you borrow money from Gladys?"

    "No."

    "Then how did you buy--?" Alec swept an arm over the table, his smile fading. His other arm was still dangling by his side, strangely motionless, and David realized he hadn't moved it once.

    "Are you hurt?" he asked.

    Alec's mouth tightened. "How did you buy all this?" he said again.

    "I had money."

    "The money you made singing?"

    David nodded.

    "How much did you spend?" Alec's voice was clipped, curt.

    David told him and Alec got up and disappeared up into the loft, returned carrying a small leather pouch. He opened it and pulled a handful of coins out, put them on the table. "This is for what you spent today." He pulled out another handful and put them next to the first pile. "And this should last you for the rest of the week."

    David pushed the first pile of coins back across the table. "I don't need this."

    "Take it."

    "Why?"

    Alec's face tightened. "I don't want anything from you. Not now, not ever. Got it?"

    "No."

    Alec stared at him. "You shouldn't have spent your money on me," he finally said.

    "Why not?"

    "You should go back to the square tomorrow," Alec said abruptly. "You liked that, right?"

    "I'm going to have tea with Gladys tomorrow."

    "You're free of whatever held you before," Alec said, his voice almost desperate. "You can do whatever you want."

    "I know," David said. "Do you want the last piece of gingerbread?"

    "I don't understand you," Alec said.

    "Yes, you do," David said. "You just don't want