Then she told everything the man had said in the room. She said they were going to keep pushing the disgusting bum. I didn’t know what that meant. Push him where? I tried not to hear. I let my arm hang outside the window. The wind went through my fingers. It made my hand flip-flop. I watched the fields going by. Some had corn and it was getting tall and green. The leaves made a shushing sound that I liked. Some other fields had fat cows and they pushed their wet noses against the wire fences. I think they were trying to get at the long grass in the gutters when there was lots of other grass all over the place. Dumb cows.

“A lawyer, if you can imagine,” Gloria said. “And now he lives under a bridge in the woods. Who in the world would want that for themselves?” Her hands went into fists. “I’ll sue them, Telly. If they mess this up. The entire police department. Sue them for every cent they got.”

“We’ll do it together,” he said. “Take a stand. Just like we done before when that truck hit us. We stuck together, and got what we were owed. Remember?” Telly slowed down at the stop signs. He spat out his window. “Rowan belongs to both of us, you know.”

Gloria’s side was squished into mine. She was shaking bad. Even without taking my eyes off those cows, I could tell. Then I felt Telly’s fingers tickle my shoulder. He had his arm wormed around Gloria. He was hugging her. When I peeked, I saw she had her head on his shoulder. She let out a big sigh. “How do people get through this?” she said.

“One minute at a time, Glow. That’s all.” He kissed her hair. The brown part that was growing out was gone, and it was all yellow again.

Telly wasn’t mad no more. Gloria wasn’t neither.

He drove into the circle and I saw Shar out on her front step. She was home from visiting with her mom. She waved at me and I waved back.

Telly turned down our driveway. When the truck stopped Gloria said, “Come in, just come in.”

“I can’t. I mean. Not now. I got to get. I mean, I just can’t, Glow.”

“We got to talk,” she said. “Get this figured out right now. Today. This afternoon.”

“My things. Glow. I got to—”

I wasn’t trying to look, but I saw Gloria put her hand inside the unzipped part of Telly’s overalls.

“Glow. I—”