Fragments Chapter 16 Page 2

The others don’t seem to find his sense of humour to be funny right now and look at each other disapprovingly. The awkwardness of the joke quickly becoming apparent and his grin melts into a more acceptable frown as he conforms to the group norms. Sarah raises her head slightly to try to get a better angle and asks: How many are there? And Tommy crawls to the edge of the roof to peak over. He signals back with 7 fingers and, after a short pause, holds his thumb and finger up representing a zero. Sarah’s eyes flash open and she forgets for a moment the value of silence: Seventy? Holy shit!

He looks at her frowning more deeply than before and signals to keep her voice down. Another few seconds observing them and he crawls back. Brian asks in disbelief: You say there are seventy of them? Like Seven Zero - Seventy?