“And you ain’t going nowhere without a party, I can tell you that. You like Helena?”

“Sure thing.” Leo looked out the window as he handed Ryder more cans. Helena stood near the barbecue with her back to the house, talking to Jim, who was smiling and nodding his head at what she was saying. Jim poked the sausages with the fork, but didn’t roll them over any.

Ryder set up the poker table outside against the trees, Leo brought out the chairs, and everyone sat down and ate smoking kielbasa on Wonder Bread with mustard and ketchup. The potato salad was dry and cold, and Jim and Ryder were talking about the German food they used to eat in New Braunfels, Texas, before Leo was born, how they’d drive up there with Katie Faye on a weekend and the three of them would swim all afternoon, then end up at an outdoor restaurant with iced mugs of German beer and plates of hot sauer this and that.

Helena took small bites, keeping her lips closed while she chewed. When the men mentioned Katie Faye, Leo saw her look at him. Jim talked of Ryder having drunk so much one day he almost drowned in the Guadalupe River. Ryder was laughing with a full mouth he had to cover with his hand. Leo smiled with the others but he was thinking of Allie putting her fingers on his knee the first time he was at her house, when he told about his mother and Allie’d said she had no idea. Helena wasn’t looking at him anymore, but still, he felt her there.

The last of the sunlight hung in gold breaks in the trees of the woods, and the mosquitoes started to hit. Helena insisted she clear away the paper plates so the men could haul the furniture back in. Inside Jim brewed a pot of coffee, and Ryder served Helena a cold can of Pabst wrapped in a napkin. Leo got a Coke and followed them both into the parlor. While Helena remarked how clean the house was and what a view they had, Leo squatted and put his new Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee album on the record player. His thighs were starting to shake from the run and he couldn’t stay in a squat for long. He sat down on the couch with his Coke just as Brownie’s guitar started in, and Ryder whirled around from the window. “Hell Young Buddy, they’ll upstage us. Give ’em the hook, we’re gonna play.”