Explore "Lone Women" by Victor LaValle on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Alone again, Adelaide pushed Matthew out of her mind and occupied herself with the business of survival. She put on her boots and heavy coat and brought two buckets to the nearest coulee and filled them both with snow. They still hadn't hit the true Montana winter. The fact that she could march to the coulee and back on foot was proof.
Once back with the snow, she took stock of her brown coal. The supply was nearly exhausted and burning it continued to have an ill effect. Unlike wood, the smoke from the brown coal backed up into the cabin and stung her eyes, made her cough, if she burned too much of it for too long. When the heavier snows hit, she'd be stuck in this cabin even more, and the idea of living on brown coal alone made her choke. Grace had shared some wood with her, but that had run out weeks ago. She needed more.