I knew she wasn’t serious.

“She still mad at me?”

“She’ll always be mad at you.”

“She has her reasons.”

“We all have our reasons,” she said.

I handed her an envelope and she took it and looked inside. “For Eva,” I said.

She kept looking inside the envelope. “How much is in here?”

“About thirty-five.” It was almost the entire payout from Froehmer. “Put it in the college fund, or the science club, whatever. But for Eva, you know.”

“You need to get away from Froehmer,” she said.

“It’s all right,” I said. “I’m doing all right.”

“You need to get away from him.”

“And do what?”

“If I were your age I think I’d bust my ass to get into a more dignified form of endeavor,” she said in a voice I recognized.

“That’s your mother talking.”

“Not just to me, you know. You could do anything you want. You always could.”

“It doesn’t work like that. You know that. I’m ahead for the first time in a long time, and I’m going to stay ahead for a while.”

“I hope so,” she said. “But be careful. And look out, you know. I mean it.”

“Froehmer looks out for me. He always has.”

“He looks out for himself, and that’s it. You need to do the same.”

“I’m trying,” I said. “How about you?”

“I’m looking out for Eva. That keeps me in line. I might even go back to school. I don’t know. We could take classes like we used to.”

—

“When’s science club over with?”

“Not for a while,” she said. “I should get back inside before my mother thinks you’ve kidnapped me.”

“I’m not going to see Eva?”

“Next time,” she said. “I’ll have to figure it out.”

“What’s to figure out?”

She folded the envelope and pushed it down into her pocket. She turned and looked at me and said, “I’m going to say goodbye before this turns into a fight. Thanks for the help. We’ll see about next time.”

She closed the door on me and I walked back to my car. I was standing in the street, fishing for my keys, when I saw a car coming up the street towards me. It put on the brakes hard and stayed in the street for a moment. I couldn’t see who was driving, but there was somebody in the passenger’s seat I thought I recognized. It was Eva.

She got out of the car and made her way to the sidewalk and walked toward me. The car did a U-turn and drove off.

“Who was that?” I said.

“Mom’s boyfriend,” Eva said.

“Why’d he leave you in the street?”

Eva shrugged. “He had to go, I guess.”

“You want to go get an ice cream?”