“Oh, your poison love has stained the lifeblood in my heart and soul, and I know my life will never be the same,” Ralph Stanley sang from the tape player in a high, keening wail. Lily put the car in reverse, but the tears welled up and she backed smack into the side of a dented-in, scraped-up, painted-over Plymouth Reliant. In a terrible silence they craned their necks and watched the car door creak open and a long leg reach out, agile toes clutching on to blue shower shoes, then the whole man unfolding out of the driver’s seat, tall, loose, and lanky.

“We are so sorry, sir,” Louise said all in a dither, scrambling out to meet him. “My sister should not be driving a car. She just had her heart broken by a banjo player, and the tears distort her depth perception.”

The man stopped and staggered back on his heels. He peered in earnestly at Lily. “Bluegrass?” he said. “Or old-time?”

“Old-time,” said Lily.

“Aw, honey, bless your heart.” He squatted down and gazed at her sorrowfully.

“Wait a minute,” said Louise, rummaging in the glove compartment for the insurance card. “Shouldn’t we be examining our cars and assessing the damage?”

“We are assessing the damage,” said the man, and he stood up, took two spoons out of his pocket, and went into a little shuffling dance, tapping the spoons high up on his thigh, chucka chucka chucka, then down near his knee, hitting the palm of his hand on the upstroke, double time, ticka ticka ticka.

“I can’t find any dents on your car that aren’t already rusted over,” called Louise.

With a little flourish he drew the spoons slowly across the inside of his knuckles and slipped them back into his pocket.

“You can trust me,” he said to Lily. “I don’t play nothing with strings on it.”

“Can you help us find something?” said Louise. “We’re looking for a lake somewhere around here, where there used to be a building with a tower.”

“We’re looking for the kind of place where a man might disappear behind a blue mule, or a brave boy might swim in a path of light,” said Lily, “to sprinkle our mother’s ashes.”