There was a new James Bond movie playing at the Fremont. As Leo walked by the Hungry Pioneer Inn, a small boy and girl in the back seat of a passing car turned around and looked at him out their rear window. Both had blonde hair and they smiled, but didn’t wave. The sun shone through a thin veil of clouds and left the air hazy. He cut down the side road, passed the police station, and walked through the covered bridge. It was dark, and Leo heard the flap of wings above him. He watched a robin settle herself into a straw and mud nest perched in the center of a collar tie just beneath the ridge of the roof. He remembered kissing Allie here, and he knew he’d kiss her here again. Man, he’d kiss her all over town. Because what’s done is done, he thought. As soon as I balance the books with Chick and her mother, as soon as Allie sees that eighteen-year-old man in the suit taking care of things, taking care of her, then she’ll know she’s not alone and that doing it alone gave her no satisfaction at all.

The sun had cleared Spoon Hill, and as Leo walked the long steep drive, he couldn’t raise his head without being blinded, so he stared straight ahead at the gravel in front of him. His gray slacks were sticking to his thighs, and he could feel the cash wad straining against the inside of his front pocket. He was sweating beneath his new shirt but he wasn’t going to take off his jacket and spoil the look. When he reached the top of the hill, he adjusted his tie knot and stepped into the shade of the cabin.

“There’s my buddy.” Chick’s voice sounded farther away than it was; he sat in his wheelchair on the porch. He wore boxer shorts, and his left leg was in a full cast, his right arm too. His chest was wrapped in white tape, his throat was a wide purple bruise, and he had two or three days of dark whiskers on his smiling face.

Leo was still breathing hard from the climb. He walked up onto the porch and shook Chick’s left hand.

“Running for office, Leo?” Chick gestured towards Leo’s outfit.

“No, I just, you know, I got these yesterday.” Leo sat down on a wood stool beside him. “Allie home?”

Chick nodded. He didn’t look like himself with those casts on him. He seemed smaller out of the hospital. Even the muscles in his good arm were small, the veins less pronounced.

“I’m a mess, aren’t I?”