Lauren Groff reads her story from the August 28, 2017, issue of the magazine. Groff is the author of the story collection “Delicate Edible Birds” and three novels, including “Arcadia,” which was published in 2012, and “Fates and Furies,” which came out in 2015. Her story collection, “Florida," will be published next summer.
What the storm had erased was the silence from the other cabin. For hours, there had been no laughing, no bottle caps falling, none of the bickering that the girls had grown used to over the past two days. This was because there were no more adults. They’d been left alone on the island, the two little girls. Four and seven.