When Michelle finally started breathing again, she sounded like she had just run a sprint. And snot was rattling around in her nose and throat. “And,” she continued, her breathing labored, “the crazy thing is—I’m happy. ’Cause I wanna have a baby. Because I love the guy. And he loves me.”

And then she shrugged. And then laughed through some tears and said, “And I never thought I’d love anyone like I loved you.”

And she shrugged again and said, through some more tears, “And I never thought I’d find a guy who would ever love a girl like me.” And then she smiled and said, “But I did. And I’m real happy about it.”

And then she leaned her head against her window and thought about what it was going to be like for her when her family and friends found out she was going to have a baby. And said, “But I’m afraid everyone’s gonna make me feel like I should be sad about it.”

Michelle turned to Justin, who was staring at the glove box. “Do you think I should be sad about it?” she asked.

Justin didn’t say anything. For a while. Because he was trying to figure out what he thought about what Michelle had just told him.

Which made Michelle think that he thought she should be sad about it.

And they sat in the kind of silence that wasn’t comfortable—but that talking would make less comfortable.

A rap on the passenger-door window interrupted the silence. Michelle and Justin jumped a little, and Michelle made sure she didn’t look like she had been crying, and Justin grabbed the crank handle down by his knee and rolled down his window. A large woman in a forest-ranger uniform was peering into the LeSabre. In northern Maine, forest rangers could act as the police. Most didn’t. But this one did.

“Evenin’, kids,” said the forest ranger.

“Hi,” said Justin.

“Everything okay in here?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Justin.

“Okay,” said the forest ranger, and she pointed toward the entrance to Last Gas and said, “No loiterin’, okay?”

“Huh?” asked Justin.

The woman pointed harder. And Justin and Michelle saw a NO LOITERING sign above the entrance. “You’ve been sittin’ out here for long enough that you’re loiterin’. So, time to move on.”

“Oh. Yes, ma’am,” said Michelle and Justin.

The forest ranger rapped on the roof of the LeSabre and headed inside Last Gas for a coffee. And probably a doughnut.

And Michelle started her engine and pulled out of the parking lot and headed north on North/South Road.

“What was that?” asked Justin.

“I don’t know.”

“Who was that?”

“I don’t know. She was probably just makin’ sure we weren’t drinkin’.”

That’s exactly what the forest ranger was doing.

And they drove for a while, the residue of their earlier conversation sticking to their thoughts.

But they didn’t talk.

Michelle wanted to know what Justin thought of her news.

And she wanted him to be happy for her.