Someone pushed a cart behind her. She looked at the cashier and could tell from his eyes she needed to fish or cut bait. She scraped the coins into her hand and grabbed the perm box, thrust it into the plastic bag, and walked out the door.

The rain came harder and sideways now, and she stood under the eave in the only dry spot on the sidewalk, in the white glow of fluorescence. She only needed three dollars and change but at the moment it felt like three million. She could go back and ask Brian, but he’d want to know what it was for and besides, she knew he didn’t have any money by the fact that he had no cigarettes left.

The door opened and a ding sounded behind her. Then someone said, “Excuse me.”

Melissa turned.

“I couldn’t help overhearing.” A woman had her purse open, fishing for something. She pulled out a five-dollar bill and held it out. “I hope this will help you.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Melissa said as she took the bill.

“I know. It’s just something I feel the . . . well, I want you to have it. And I want you to know that He sees you.”

Melissa looked behind her, then back at the woman. “Who sees me?”

She smiled and put a hand on Melissa’s shoulder. Then she walked into the rain.

Melissa went back inside the store.

When Melissa came out of the bathroom, she found Brian watching wrestling on the TV he’d been given for Christmas when he was fourteen. She stood beside it, and when he didn’t look at her, she turned it off.

“Hey, I was watching that!”

When he looked at her face, he stopped protesting and sat up. “What’s wrong? You look like a muskrat, by the way.”

“Thanks. That’s a sweet thing to say.”

“I just meant your hair. Where’d you go, anyway?”

“Drugstore.” She sat beside him and held out the pregnancy test. “I bought this.”

“Is it a thermometer?”

She handed it to him and he held it closer, studying the section where the test showed a plus sign.

“It’s a thing you pee on to tell you if you’re pregnant.”

His mouth dropped and he couldn’t take his eyes off of it. After what seemed like an ice age he said, “Why would you need to buy this?”

“Maybe if I give you a little more time, you’ll figure it out?”

He looked at her, then back at the object in his hand. “You think you might be pregnant?”

“I’ve been sick to my stomach every morning for the past week.”

“What does it say?”

“Says you’re going to be a father.”

The air seemed to leave the room for both of them.

“Whoa.”

“Is that all you can think to say?”