“She got mad, huh?”

“Yep. She got mad.”

“That’s too bad.”

“Why? I can fix this, Charlotte.”

“You broke it, you should fix it, but you know what, Al?”

“What?”

“Don’t waste your energy.” I get up and head for the steps.

“Wait a minute, Charlotte!” he says, coming after me.

“No, you wait a minute, buster. I done gave you some of the best fucking years of my life, and you just keep on deceiving me and lying to me, and now I find out you got another baby—not just one, but two! I don’t need to be married to no man I can’t trust. And you? You can’t be trusted, so all your little theatrics, save ’em for what’s-her-name, Alice. Go tell Alice!”

“Charlotte, please don’t do this. Just think about this for a minute. Let’s sleep on it.”

“No, you sleep on it, Al. Just make sure it ain’t here. And if you here when I wake up, I’ll go straight to the courthouse and get me a restraining order.”

“For what? I ain’t done nothing to you!”

“What did you say?”

“I mean, I ain’t put my hands on you or nothing like that, Charlotte.”

“Oh, but you have, Al. You have. You know what? You feel like a credit card I done had for a long time and now I’m over the limit, so I’m taking the scissors and cutting the motherfucker up so I can’t use it no more. I got enough credit, you know what I mean?”

“Naw I don’t. Charlotte, baby, what about the kids?”

“The kids is gon’ be fine. They grown any-damn-way.”

“I don’t want no divorce.”

“No? I don’t see why not. Then you can be free to fuck anybody anytime anywhere. That’s probably what you been doing all these years in your big rig, huh, ain’t it? Is that where you do it?”

“Stop it, Charlotte. I told you the truth. I ain’t slept with another woman in ten years except you. I swear on my mama and daddy’s grave that that’s the truth.”

“But you a liar, Al.”

“Sometimes you gotta lie to protect folks’ feelings.”

“Look, I’m getting bored listening to you and I’m tired as hell and I wanna go to sleep.” I walk up a few steps and then I hear him say . . .

“What you gon’ do without me?”

I let my foot drop back down a step, and I turn to look at him, even though I ain’t exactly sure how to answer this question or where to start. I just say, “A whole lot more.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Charlotte?”

“You really wanna hear it, Al?”

“Oh, so is this something you been thinking about for a while?”