“Rodney has come to see you,” said Isbell, still with her hand on the door. She hadn’t invited me in and she’d gone pale.

“Oh,” said Larry. His glasses were slightly crooked and his shirt was buttoned wrong, but he still looked like my best and oldest friend and seeing him made me miss him more. Larry was a big part of what made my old life nice, and Larry was one of the nicest people I knew. Is one of the nicest people.

“Is it okay?” he asked his mom. “For me to talk to him?”

Isbell’s face went funny, like she was going to cry, and I wished everybody would stop crying, including myself.

“I’m sorry, Rodney, there are a lot of things going on. I’m not sure this is the best time for you to be here. I’m sorry, boys.”

“My mom’s in the car,” I said. Even though she already knew that. “Maybe you guys could talk.”

She frowned at me. “I don’t want to speak with your mother, Rodney.”

It hurt my feelings to hear that.

“Why?” I said.

Her mouth fell open. “Rodney, have your parents spoken to you about the, uh, situation? With your father?”

I shook my head. But before I could explain that they tried, at least my mom did, she got really mad.

“Unbelievable,” she said. “Are you telling me that your parents sent you over here on their behalf without explaining things to you? Are you freaking kidding me?”

“I thou—” I said, but she was storming past me and over to the Range Rover. I looked at Larry and he looked at me and then we watched our moms.

Isbell got to the car in about two seconds and knocked on the driver’s side window.

“I can’t believe you. You want me to tell him what your husband did? What he’s been doing? How is this my responsibility? Just like I had to clean up after all the messes and avoid his…advances myself? So I could keep my job in order to support my son?”

“I—” said my mom.

“You’re not much into dealing with reality, are you? How dare you put this on me. And these kids. You need to take Rodney to see his father so his father can explain himself.”

Isbell was holding tight to the sides of the driver’s window, talking at my mom like she wanted to scream at her but was trying not to. “I wish I didn’t blame you, but I do,” she said.

My heart was smashing around in my chest from how mean Isbell was being to my mom. This was my fault. I just wanted to talk to Larry.

I was still frozen in the doorway when Isbell stormed past me into her house.

“These kids deserve better,” she said, yelling at my mom. “And so do I.”