She smoked, nodded, and started to cry, letting her tears drip down her face and wiping them with short, furious movements. Her torso pushed forward and for a moment I thought she was going to leave.

“Ruthanne was just like that when she was little. Always moving. I never felt I could . . . she had spirit, she was—she had . . . wonderful spirit.”

She tugged her shorts down and sniffed.

“Want some coffee?”

“Sure.”

“Wait right here.” She went into the house.

“Hey, girls,” I called out.

Tiffani kept jumping. Chondra looked up. Her mouth hung slightly open and water droplets bubbled her forehead, like oversized sweat.

I went over to her. “Swim a lot?”

She gave a very small nod and splashed one arm, turning away and facing the avocado tree. Young fruit hung from the branches, veiled by a cloud of whiteflies. Some of it was blackened with disease.

Tiffani waved at me. Then she began to chant in a loud voice:

“I went to the Chinese restaurant,

to get a loaf of bread bread bread,

a man was there with a big mustache,

and this is what he said said said.

El eye el eye chicholo beauty, pom-pom cutie . . .”

Evelyn came back holding a couple of mugs. Bonnie marched behind her carrying a small plate of sugar wafers. The look on her face said she'd been created for better things.

I walked back to the lawn chairs.

Bonnie said, “Here you go,” handed me the plate, and sashayed off.

Evelyn gave me a mug. “Black or cream?”

“Black.”

We sat and sipped. I balanced the cookie plate on my lap.

“Have one,” she said, “or are you one of those health-food types?”

I took a wafer and chewed on it. Lemon-flavored and slightly stale.

“I dunno,” she said, “maybe I shoulda been a health fooder, too. I always gave my kids sugar and stuff, whatever they wanted—maybe I shouldn'ta. Got a boy went AWOL over in Germany two years ago, don't even know where he is, the baby don't know zero about what she wants to do with her life, and Ruthie . . .”

She shook her head and looked over at Tiffani. “Watch your head on that branch, you!”

“Bonnie's the baby?” I said.

Nod. “She got all the brains and the looks. Just like her daddy—he coulda been a movie star. Only time I ever went gaga for the looks, and boy, what a mistake that was.”

She gave a full smile. “He cleaned me out thirteen months after we were married. Left me with the baby in diapers and went down to Louisiana to work the deep-sea rigs. Got killed soon after in a fall that they said was an accident. Never took out the right insurance for himself, so I got nothing.”