II.

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Winnie mindlessly poked at her breakfast with her fork. She leans her head against her hand, squishing her cheek.

"You should eat, Win." Jonathan told her.

"I'm not hungry." The girl responded.

Across from her, an anxious Joyce lights a cigarette. Jonathan brings his mom a plate, causing the woman to jump.

"Be careful of the poster." Then she sighed. "Oh, I can't eat."

"I just need you to eat, Mom."

"No, listen. Listen. The Xerox place opens in like 30 minutes." The stressed woman explained.

"I told you. I got it." Jonathan reassured.

"But I don't want you going alone, so I'm gonna have Karen take you."

"I could go with him." Winnie offered.

"No. You should- you should stay here w-with me. W- we should be here."

"Ok . . ." Winnie didn't know whether Joyce wanted her home because she wanted company or because she didn't trust her. Not having the energy to overthink at the comment, Winnie went with the former. She just wished she could be more help. She felt like she'd done nothing useful since Will disappeared.

"We need to make, what, 200, 300 copies? How much is a copy? 10 cents? If we... ten cents—"

"Mom!" Jonathan cut her off. "You can't get like this, okay?"

"I'm sorry." Joyce apologized

"No, hey, it's okay." Her son told her.

Suddenly, there was loud knocking on the front door. Joyce quickly put out her cigarette and ran to open it. Hopper stepped inside.

"We've been waiting six hours!" Joyce told the chief.

"Yeah, I know. I came as soon as I could."

"Six hours."

"A little trust here, alright? We've been searching all night. Went all the way to Cartersville."

"And?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, god." Joyce covered her mouth with her hand, holding back a sob.

Winnie watched from the background, peering around the corner from the kitchen. The group of three talked in the living room until making there way back through the house. Accidentally making eye contact with her dad, she dropped her gaze to the floor.

"Flo says you got a phone call?" Hopper asked.

"Yeah." Joyce gestured to the fried device on the wall.

"Wow." The Chief said upon examination. "Storm barbecued this pretty good."

"The storm?"

"What else?"

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