"Let's go. They ain't gonna let us in."

"Just wait a little longer—please, Ash. They're just deciding. Sometimes it takes a while to decide."

"They decided soon as they saw us," Ashley said, thinking, nah, more like as soon as they saw me. "They ain't opening that door again. Probably gone to bed and forgotten us, and I don't blame 'em for it."

"They haven't done that," Maya said. Ashley noticed that her sister's fists were tightly clenched. "They're just deciding."

"It doesn't take that long to decide!"

"Sometimes it does."

"No it don't!"

Maya shook her head, very slightly.

"Sometimes it does," she repeated.

Ashley shook her own head, nothing at all slight about the gesture. She pointed at the door.

"If that door ain't open by the time I get back from those trees over there, we're heading on. We can try to find a haystack or something somewhere."

"Haystack?"

"It's a farm, ain't it?"

"This is a vegetable farm."

"Whatever!"

Ashley stomped off towards the trees, scowling. If she wasn't the best damn thing in the world, she thought, I could get really sick of that girl.