Snow

They ate potatoes. Alec stuck a stick in the pot after the moon had risen and pulled out two of them, wrinkled gray with steam billowing from their skins.

"I like potatoes," David said and tossed his from hand-to-hand, trying not to burn himself. Alec watched him for a moment before shaking his head and picking up another stick, spearing David's potato with it.

"I wouldn't think a...you would eat potatoes."

"All the time." David had figured out how to eat his potato now. Copying Alec he carefully blew on the skin, peeling it and bits of flesh away and popping them into his mouth. "Boiled and baked and," he closed his eyes, "fried with drippings and made into cakes and sliced with egg.

The best ones are the little ones, the ones as long as your fingers. My nurse used to--" he broke off. It was the first time he'd spoken about her to anyone. "She grew up in a village," he finished softly. "She said they grew everywhere."

Alec nodded. "Except in mines," he said and something in his voice, in the way his eyes almost met David's but didn't, let David know that Alec understood what it was like to have memory rise, that it was sweet and hurtful all at once.

"I could fry up some," David said shyly. "I know how. You can slice them into rings and then shape them like a flower and-"

"You do realize all I have is the pot, right?"

"Oh," David said. "Right."

"But since you apparently know what that is," Alec said with a smile, "you can wash it."

David washed it, drank some water, and then went back by the cart by way of the horse, stopping to carefully pet it. It looked at him placidly, tail twitching a little when he scratched its ears.

"What's his name?" he asked when he walked back to the fire.

"What?" Alec said. He was staring into the flames, a distracted look on his face.

"The horse. What's his name?"

"Her," Alec said with a small smile. "And she doesn't have one. I'll be selling her once I'm off the road."

"Oh," David sat down next to Alec and passed him the pot. "What does that matter?"

Alec took it, tossed it into the cart. The horse snorted, then quieted. "It doesn't. That's the point.

It's a horse. It doesn't need a name."

"Sure she does. She has a white mark on her ear that looks like a star. You could call her--"

"What was your nurse's name?"

"What?"

"Her name," Alec said slowly. "What was it?"

"I don't--I don't know."

"Then maybe you should shut up about the damn horse."

David put his hands on his knees, miserable. He stared into the fire and thought about his nurse.

He didn't even know her name. He'd never even thought about it. But she'd had one. He wondered what it was. Next to him Alec sat tapping the fingers of one hand against his leg over and over again, a rapid drumming.

"I called her Star for a while," he said abruptly, and his voice was so soft David could barely hear it. "Back when I first bought her. But when I realized I was going to have to sell her I didn't--I didn't want her to have a name anymore."

"You'll miss her less that way?"

Alec shrugged.

"I still miss my nurse," David said. "I always will. And I-I never even knew her name."

"It'll get easier," Alec said, and his voice was mild now, so carefully even David knew the tone was forced. "You can forget anything or anyone if enough time passes."

"I don't believe that."

Alec laughed a little, a harsh bite of sound. "Yeah, well, I have to."

David was almost asleep when the singing started. It took him a moment to recognize the song but when he did he smiled. It was an old song, one about three birds and a little bear and his nurse had sung it to him. The voice singing was nicer than his nurse's, not shaky at all but high and rounded and strong. Alec's voice. It was beautiful. David hummed along at first, softly, until his favorite part, where the bear asked each of the birds a question, and then he started to sing along.

Alec stopped singing.

"Why did you stop?" David asked.

"I don't--I don't sing anymore," Alec said. "I forgot--I forgot you were here."

"Oh," David said. "But I'm right next to you."

"I didn't really forget," Alec said sharply. "I just--I thought you were asleep and I was trying not to think about the damn horse. Thanks for that, by the way."

"You're welcome," David said and Alec rolled his eyes, shook his head. "You have a nice voice."

"Yeah," Alec said. "I do. But not nice enough for people to forget--"he gestured at himself.

"Forget what?"

"Me. I look like--" he looked at David. "A miner. People don't want to see that. They want to see--well, someone like you."

"Me?"

Alec sighed. "The next town, you go into the square and sing and you--you'll do fine."

"Have you done that?"

"Done what?" Alec said, and then smiled a smile that wasn't one at all. "I tried. But...it didn't work. Not like I thought it would. You though--you'd make a fortune."

"I don't know if I could do anything like that." David paused. "If I should." He held his breath for a second before saying, softly, "I'm not like other people."