“Snowballs.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“You said something.”

“Don’t think I did, Mal.”

“Jayne ...”

“What?”

“You’re supposed to say ‘pardon’.”

“Huh?”

“Not ‘what’. ‘Pardon’.”

“You had too much of the sun?”

“No, I just … you know, never mind. What did you say?”

“When?”

“Before.”

“Before what?”

“Jayne …”

“Um …”

“I think it was snowballs.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“So?”

“So … what?”

“Any particular reason?”

“Just … it’s hotter’n hell.”

“And?”

“And I’m as parched as a whore in church.”

“ Jayne .”

“What? No-one’s listening.”

“I am.”

“Didn’t think you were that delicate. Not after what I heard you saying when you kicked that barbell.”

“Which was your fault. Leaving it lying around on the floor.”

“I was planning on fixing it. ‘N’ I got the septic vat for it.”

“What goes around comes around.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what the vat’s for.”

“Did you just make a joke?”

“No, Mal.”

“Good. Anyway, about snowballs …”

“Just that it ain’t natural, having Christmas at the hottest part of the year.”

“Every planet does.”

“It does?”

“If it’s snowing one side, it’s hot the other.”

“I s’pose. Still don’t seem right. Like taking this job from Fanty and Mingo.”

“We need the work.”

“But right now?”

“After we deliver the goods we can set Serenity down somewhere cold. See some real snow.”

“Can’t be too soon. I’m sweatin’ like a pig in this get-up. Which is making me itch.”

“Are you scratching?”

“Yeah, Mal. S’why I was thinking of snowballs. ‘Cause of what we’re wearing.”

“So you were …”

“Sweatin’. And itchin’.”

“And scratching.”

“Yeah.”

“Give me strength.”

“What?”

“And you ain’t the only one perspirin’.”

“Persp … you sure you ain’t Kaylee in disguise?”

“If’n I shoot you, will that be proof enough?”

“Prob’ly. But I mean it. The cold ain’t never bothered me, but heat like this … might as well be raining I’m so gorram wet. And you know how I feel about that.”

“Well, you can