"Dinner?"
                          
Kirsi nodded and led the way back into the house. Stepping into the airlock, both girls waited until it sealed and air filled the chamber, then they removed their tanks and continued inside to the kitchen.
                          
Unlike the shelters, which had small communal airtight kitchens supplied with just enough oxygen to breathe so food could be prepared and eaten without the aid of an oxygen mask or feat of polluting food, Kirsi's house was already airtight. Therefore, the kitchen didn't need to be sealed off. 
                          
Nym consciously took in a deep breath of the slightly stale but clean air, wondering if this was what it was like all the time in the domed cities. 
                          
"Hey, girlies, you two ready for dinner?" Kirsi's mother asked as she turned to face them, her black curly hair bouncing in front of her face as she set a bowl of salad on the table. Kirsi's family always ate fresher foods, something about health. Nym didn't mind, but she didn't see the point in the effort. Most rations already contained healthy foods, they were simply compressed and packaged so they could withstand the outside air during transport.
                          
"Yes, ma'am. We're definitely hungry," Nym said with a small smile as she walked over to the table. She'd eaten with Kirsi's family more times than she could remember. She was practically a part of their family. Regardless, Kirsi's mother always made enough to feed her family twice over.
                          
"Hey, Nym, how's your day been?" asked Mr. Brooks as he helped his wife set the table.
                          
Nym took a seat and forced a smile at them both, her gesture feeling empty again. "It was alright. Just long," she lied, hoping Kirsi wouldn't blow it for her. She loved and trusted the Brooks family, but she wasn't really up to just telling everyone that she'd lost her brother.
                          
Thankfully, Kirsi said nothing on the matter as she scooted her chair up to the table. "What's for dinner?" she asked, surveying the food.
                          
"Use your eyes and you'll figure it out," Mr. Brooks teased as he took his seat between his wife and daughter.
                          
Mrs. Brooks sat beside him and looked at Nym with a gentle smile. There was a tired look in her eyes that had been there for as long as Nym could remember, but it never dulled the joyful light in her face. It was part of what made Nym wish could have her as a second mother.
                          
"Hmm, salad and...meatloaf?" Kirsi deduced, her eyes scanning the table. Then they lit up brightly. "And cheese biscuits," she grinned.
                          
Nym rolled her eyes to keep herself from getting too excited over the notion of something other than soup, pasta, and the other three meals she and Cormac had known how to make. Deep down, though, she couldn't deny wishing she'd come here more often for dinner.
                          
Plates were passed around the table and everyone loaded them down with food. After that, all four joined hands and bowed their heads.
                          
"Dear Lord, please bless this food and our family. Please be with our daughter and her friend in their day to day life and keep them safe from harm. We thank You for bringing us together again after another day and thank You for Your Son who died that we might live. Praise be to Your holy name. In Jesus name, Amen."
                          
Mr. Brooks squeezed Nym's hand gently at the close of the prayer, and she lifted her head. Then reached for her fork and dug in.
                          
"So, anything new from work?" Mrs. Brooks asked her husband.
                          
Nym listened to the two silently, reaching for another cheese biscuit as she watched them. Two wouldn't be too many, right? Kirsi had eaten three last time, surely two wasn't too many. Nym just snatched it up and put it beside the first on her plate.