“Yeah. He’s here with his dad’s Buick. Did he wait for Mom to go to work? Is he watching us or something? Thomas is upset. He was trying to borrow a lawn mower.”

“So what if he cuts the lawn?” Ellen sat up on her trundle, her thin hair tangled and flat from sleep. “It’s nice of him. Thomas should thank him. Now he doesn’t have to do it.”

“Marie, make him go. Please. Please make him go.”

“What do you want me to do, go out there and say, ‘How dare you answer our call for help in the middle of the night and then kindly come cut our grass?’ I mean, he obviously thinks he’s doing a good thing.”

“He is,” said Ellen.

I hadn’t told Marie yet about what Wilson was planning. Maybe she knew. “Marie, just tell him to leave us alone. Now. Tell him to just go. Thomas wanted to cut the lawn.”

“You’re being totally melodramatic,” Marie said. “Thomas can cut it next time, and the hard work will be done for him.” She stood over by the window, looking out. “It looks like shit, anyway. It’s yellow.”

“Please, Marie. I don’t want him here. He scares me.”

The back door slammed.

“Well, there goes Thomas,” Marie said, looking out. The three of us stood at the window and watched Thomas walk down the driveway. He kicked at the ground but squared his shoulders, staring straight ahead when he went past Wilson. Wilson waved but Thomas ignored him and kept walking. Wilson didn’t seem fazed at all. He looked like he was singing.

Marie and Ellen made iced tea and took out glasses to the driveway when Wilson was finished. When we’d cut lawns with Dad, some owners would come out with drinks for us.

I watched the three of them from Beatrice’s window, Ellen looking at him like he was a hero and Marie making him laugh. I wanted to shout out the window for him to put his shirt back on, that it was obscene and all the neighbors could see. I wanted to scream “Get out and stop intruding!”

Later, hours after he’d left, I went and sat on the front porch and looked across the yard. He had done a good job: neat edges, and he’d cut it twice, creating a diagonal pattern. The grass was yellow, but in the odd place there were narrow strips of green. The smell of gasoline lingered with the cuttings.