No matter how wrapped up we get in ourselves and our particular demons, out there in the big field something else is always happening. I had barely opened my eyes the next morning when the phone rang beside my bed. I answered it, thinking it would be Dudley calling Daddy. They always called each other at dawn to talk about their work for the day. I wanted to tell Dudley about the fight the night before and get him on my side before Mother or Daddy told him their version.

It was Klane Marengo and she sounded terrible. “I’m sorry to be calling so early,” she said. “But you got to help me, Rhoda. They say I got to go to jail. You tole me the man said I wouldn’t be put in jail. Now Mr. Edmund say I got to plead guilty or they might put me in the electric chair.”

“What? What did he say?”

“He say I got to plead guilty. The day after tomorrow I got to go to court. I don’t know what to do. I tried calling Mr. Haverty but he and Miss Haverty gone to the Caribbean to go scuba diving. Look like the whole world lined up against me now. Looks like there’s nothing to do. I got Miss McVee to tell me how to call you. I just got your number this morning.”

“Klane.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Wait a minute. Give a phone number where I can call you back. I’ll call Edmund and talk to him. I’m sure you misunderstood him.”

“No, I didn’t. He tole me three times. He said I got to plead guilty or they might put me in the electric chair.”

“Give me a number. Do you have his home number? Give me that too.” I wrote down the numbers. “You stay right there. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll call you right back.”

I called Robert’s cousin Edmund. His wife answered and then Edmund came to the phone and told me in an irritated voice that what Klane had said was true.

“But she didn’t do it. You said they wouldn’t put her in jail because of her children.”

“The mood’s not good right now, Rhoda. I’m doing what I can. We’ll get it reduced to manslaughter and she’ll get a light sentence and if she’s good she can be paroled in a few years. It’s all I can do. No one’s paying me for this, if you remember. I’m doing this as a favor to Robert.”

“Where is he?”

“They’re making a scuba diving film. He’s sunk about four hundred thousand dollars in the project. Something crazy. Well, no one can control him. He’s going to lose the paper if he isn’t careful.”

“You can’t let Klane go to jail.”