“Glow? I’m trying here, but I don’t need to hear it. We’re done. I said what I came to say. I want to see the kids, and you can’t stop me.”

“Why you—” But before Gloria could open her mouth to holler, he was up and out the door. He jumped in his shiny truck and drove away slow. I could tell he didn’t want to get dust all over it.

Gloria stood up. Her face went pink. “Going to Telly’s work? Going to Telly’s work? What were you thinking?” She was yelling with her face right up in Rowan’s. “Over two months I’ve been trying to get him back on side. And you ruin it all. In one fell swoop.”

I peeked at Rowan. He just looked at the wall, but I could see his cheeks were turned pink like Gloria’s and his chin was wiggling bad. He wanted to cry. I did, too.

“Rowan didn’t mean to go,” I whispered. “Maybe he got off at the wrong spot.” My mouth was full of sand.

She yelled at me then. “Don’t you say one word, miss! You and your butterflies with that nosy Mrs. Spooner.”

My middle got a bad pain. I got up and took my plate to the sink. Everything inside my eyes was fuzzed. Gloria turned quiet, and I knew she was thinking what to do and that made my middle hurt even worse. I looked out the window. Even through all the mess in my head I could still see dark clouds over the trees. They were blue and purple and yellow. A sky bruise.

I knew those hurt clouds were coming this way.

“Up,” she said to Rowan. He was chewing on a rib bone. He let it fall straight out of his mouth. “Up you get. Nothing but a disgusting slug.” Rowan got up. “Do you know what slugs do, Maisy? They slime into your garden after all your hard work. And cowards, they just hide under the leaves and destroy from below. They don’t care about your plants. They don’t care you need to eat. They don’t care your hands are covered in blisters and your back is sunburnt and your eyes are raw from sweat. You agree, Bids?”

I stood in front of the sink. My knees shook. I couldn’t make them stay still. Dark was coming so fast I could see the kitchen get shadows. Wind burst through the windows. Hot and rushing like something was chasing it.

“Well, Bids? Don’t you agree?”

“I, I—”

“Say it,” she said. She was next to me now. “Rowan is a disgusting destructive slug.”

I could smell the storm pushing in with the wind.

“Rowan is,” I whispered. I tried to get some air. But it was too thick in my nose. “A destructing slug.”

“Get in here!” Gloria yelled.