It was an obvious question, I suppose. But I really couldn't help but ask.

"Tom?"

"Mm?" came Tom's voice from somewhere to my left.

I took a deep breath. "Tom, why the hell am I under a bush?"

I heard him come closer until his shoes came into view. I didn't bother to look up. Tom's shoes were like the rest of him, utterly inappropriate to the rest of the world. Not bad looking, but most people don't wear good leather shoes to go traipsing about the woods with.

"I'm sorry, Mag. I didn't realize it would be so hard to find. Would you like to take a break?"

A break, he says. "What I'd like, Tom, is for you to be down here while I stand around and do nothing. This was your idea in the first place, you know."

The shoes shifted a little in the leaves. "You know I can't do that, Mag. Anyway, I've got to run the camera."

I sighed. "Listen, Tom. I don't think there's anything here anyway, so I'm coming out."

"Okay," he said and the shoes stepped back.

It turned out getting under the bush was a little easier than getting out. On the way in, all I had to do was push my way through and try not to think of what was under all those leaves, even though that was really the point. Moving back, I found that somehow my jacket had gotten caught and the branches seemed positioned just right to slap my face when I turned the wrong way.

It felt better to stand up, though. So I stood and stretched, preferring to take a deep breath than be mad at Tom for dragging me out here.

I took a look at Tom. Infuriating as he could be, he wasn't hard to look at. A bit out of step with the world around him maybe, but not in a bad way. Mostly little things, like his shoes, or his beard. His habit of dressing well, but not practically. And the fact that he'd dragged me all the way out to the middle of nowhere on account of some obsession of his. But he had his way all the same. Saying no to Tom wasn't easy.

"This isn't quite what I was thinking of when you asked if I wanted to take a walk," I said, approaching where he was still adjusting the camera. "And I don't know why you brought that thing."

Tom looked up and smiled. "I was kind of hoping to catch the thrill of discovery. You know, the moment and all that."

"I was under a bush, Tom. All you'd catch is the bush shaking."

He looked at the camera. "I suppose. But it's worth it anyway. I can get some shots of the area, that'll save us having to come back down here later."

He waved his arm and I looked after it. I had to admit he was right, this was nice country. Long, sloped land, with ridges here and there that always made me think of an unmade bed. The art of the glaciers, as was the fertile soil that encouraged so much of it to be farmed. Not a house in sight either, which made it even nicer. The place was called the Musquodoboit Valley, but up at the far end where we were, nobody really thought of it that way. I liked it, no matter what it was called.

"You're right, I guess. I just didn't want to work today, that's all."

Tom sat down on a boulder nearby, another gift of the glacial sweep. Crumbs in the bed, I thought, and smiled despite myself. I joined him on the boulder.

"Honestly, I don't really think we're going to find it."

"The grave? Well, I wasn't really expecting to."

I turned on him, surprised. "Then why did you drag me all the way down here? I thought you were counting on that grave for the film?"

"Not really," he said. "It would have been nice. But you know Williams wouldn't have been buried right next to the rest of the family, what with the shame and all. That means he could be anywhere within a hundred metres of the rest of them."

I groaned. We had spent the last three weeks working up a documentary film about August Williams, a small-time pirate who had managed somehow to get away with it and vanished into the back woods of Nova Scotia. It would have been an excellent cap on the whole project to find his grave, but we hadn't any luck. The Williams' had chosen to be buried on their own land rather than at the church, some kilometers away. Which meant no church records to make our lives easier. Just a few weathered markers at the end of a long woods road.

"Don't tell me that we have to dig under every bush out here. Please don't tell me that."

Tom smiled again, but it wasn't his usual grin. "I won't, Mag. To be honest I had another reason."

"What reason?" I was a little worried. Tom didn't usually get serious, even when he had problems.

A moment passed before he spoke again. "I'm moving out of Karen's place."

I didn't know what to say, so I just stared at him. Tom and Karen had been together for as long as I'd known them, and everyone just assumed they'd be together forever. That Tom was thinking of leaving was a shock.

"I know what you're thinking. But I don't really have any choice. It's over."

"But you've been happy there. At least you looked like it."

"That's the problem. We looked fine, but that's all it was. We hadn't had a relationship in a long time, it was just habit." He smiled again. "I guess we're both better actors than we thought."

"That's the truth," I said.

I thought of something. "Tom," I asked.

"Mm?"

"Why are you telling me this, Tom? Why drag me all the way out here?"

Tom didn't say anything right away. A loon called in the distance, then was quiet. He stood and took a couple of paces.

"I wanted to ask you something."

"Then ask. I'm obviously not going anywhere."

He smiled again, a little more genuine this time. "That was the idea," he said. "I wanted to be somewhere we wouldn't get bothered."

I didn't like the sound of that. "Tom, what's going on here? Am I going to be mad at you or something?"

"Nothing like that, Mag. I just wanted to ask you a question. And to be honest, I didn't know how to ask you with everyone else around."

"So ask."

"Mag," he started. "Mag, would you like to go out with me?"

He turned away. "God, that sounds so stupid, doesn't it? It's like I'm in the seventh grade or something."

I hardly heard him. The idea of Tom and Karen not being a couple was shock enough, but this was totally beyond me. I looked at him as I tried to start thinking again. He was still talking.

"...I know you probably don't want to, and I wanted to get out here so you wouldn't be embarrassed when you tell me no..."

"Tom."

He turned. "Mag?"

"Tom, why? Why me, that is. I'm not that much to you, am I?"

He looked surprised. "Why? I've been looking at you for months,didn't you know that? Ever since that shoot at the library in the spring."

I thought back to that shoot. Karen was out of town for a few days, so I was filling her role as production assistant. That meant spending a lot more time with Tom than usual, but I thought it was just because I had more experience than anyone else. So when he asked me to be PA again, I didn't really think about it. Or any of the other times.

"Karen and I were just staying together out of habit by then," he continued. "We still are. And it's going to fall apart pretty soon, and I didn't want to lose my last chance with you."

"But I hardly know you, Tom. Apart from the shoots, and hanging around a little with the group, there's nothing. Why would you want to go out with me?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, really. But I look at you, and I feel the way I used to with Karen. Like a long while ago, when we couldn't get enough of each other. You're not the same, though, don't think I want Karen all over again."

I smiled a little. "It's okay, I'm not mad at you. I just don't get it, I guess."

Tom came back to the boulder and took my hand. "Magda, I really do want to be with you. I want to get to know you better. Do you think that would be okay?"

I hesitated for a moment. He was so earnest, it was hard to just say no, and I had to be honest with myself. Maybe he did see something that he wanted to get close to. He certainly wasn't hard to be with, even if he was a bit childlike at times. Like now, here he was in the middle of nowhere, putting his heart on the line for me, of all people. It was so ridiculous that I couldn't help but laugh.

This time, it was Tom who didn't know what to say. His expression looked so forlorn that I started laughing all over again.

"Oh, Tom," I said, between giggles. "Don't look that way. I'm not turning you down, I just couldn't help it. You look so silly standing there with that look your your face."

It took a moment for him to understand what I was saying. "You mean, you'll go with me?"

"Yes, Tom," I said. "I'll try, at least. But I'm not going to be Karen all over again for you. Deal?"

He grinned. It was the grin I always knew, but somehow it seemed a little wider than usual. "I think I can handle that."

He got up and headed back to the camera, crunching the leaves with his ridiculous shoes. I giggled again, but he didn't notice. "I guess we got what we came down here for. You want to head back?"

"Sure," I said. "But you're carrying the gear."