Penelope could recognize that Adelaide was doing her best to recover quickly and push the feelings away. It was something she was all too familiar with. But she didn't draw attention to her awareness.
When she reached out and offered that piece of advice, Penelope gave the girl a smile that clearly didn't reach her eyes. Right. Should've just kept her mouth shut. But it was truly something she should figure out and actually apply. Penelope had to figure out a way to survive on her own now. It wasn't going to be easy and she didn't like it. But it was reality. And, she supposed, that if she let on that she didn't know what she was doing, it'd make it easier for others to take advantage of her if they wanted to. "True," was all she finally said.
"I didn't mean to put the weight of symbol on your son," Penelope said. "I mean, all babies durin' difficult times like this is kinda a new push toward survival, yeah? Things can't stay like this forever. It may be hard right now, but maybe your son will be lucky and grow up to tell his grand-kids the stories of that time long ago when there were zombies and how we kicked their ass and survived."
Eyeing the offer of chocolates, Penelope hesitated for a moment. The delivery had been so strange at first. But now that it was presented to her, Penelope didn't want to take what wasn't hers. This woman deserved them more than she did. But when Adelaide insisted, Penelope finally reached over and took one of the smaller ones. "Thank you," she said. "That's awfully nice of you to share. Especially when we don't know how much chocolate is really left in the world."
"So," she continued, just holding on to the chocolate for a moment, not wanting to eat it too fast. "Where are you from?"