"My name is Glynnis," he heard abruptly. He sensed the uncertainty in her voice, and the—distant—hint of belligerence, but even so he could tell it was a soft voice, musical and clear—if he could judge after not having heard a woman's voice in so long.
"Glynnis," he said slowly. "That's a pretty name. Mine's Hal Nelson. Like I told you last night."
"I haven't forgotten. Is that for me?" She meant the food, of course. Hal Nelson looked around. She was still standing by the tree. She was trying to seem at ease and making an awkward show of it.
"Yes," he told her. She took a step closer and stopped, looking at him. He turned back to his own eating. "No need to be scared, Glynnis, I won't hurt you." He became uncomfortably aware that she had not spoken his name yet and he wanted her to very much.
"No." Then a brief pause before she said, "I'm not used to anybody."
"It isn't good to be alone out here with the animals and food so hard to come by—and the patrol searching for wakers. You ever have any brush with the patrol?"
She had come up and was eating now; her answer came between eager mouthfuls. "I seen them once. They didn't know I saw them—or they would have caught me and taken me back with them."
"Where're you from? What are you doing out here?"
For a moment he thought she had not heard him. She was busy eating, apparently having classified him as a friend. Finally, she said, "My folks were out here. They were farmers for a while. I was born out here and we moved around a lot until my daddy got tired of moving. So we built a farm. He built it in a place in a valley off there"—She vaguely indicated south—"And they planted some grain and potatoes and tried to round up some kind of livestock. We had mostly goats. But the patrol found us."
Nelson nodded, bitterly, he knew what had happened. Her father had gone on as long as he could until at last, broken and uncaring he had made one last ditch stand. More than likely he had half wanted to give up anyway, and had not only because of the conflict of his family and saving face. "You were the only one who got away?" he asked.