Task

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She scooped up a handful of sand and placed it in the battered bucket next to her.

“Cleaning things up,” she replied.

He looked around them, there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see.

“You’re wasting your time,” he stated with assurance.

She did not look up as she continued to fill her bucket but shrugged. Wind swept sand around them.

“I’m going back,” he said though he did not move.

“That’s fine,” she said.

“It’ll be getting dark soon.”

She dusted her hands and removed a lantern from her pack.

“Oh.”

For a while, there was no sound but the wind and the gentle packing of sand into a bucket. When the sky grew dim, she lit her lantern, picked up her full bucket and walked to the horizon.

“This will take forever!” he shouted at her, “You’re just one person!”

She stopped and turned back to him.

“Then help.”