Lord, but she missed May. All the years past, they’d never let a day go by without talking in person or on the phone, except for the time May lived with the ladies on Cove Road. She’d told June not to phone her there. Something about Miss Hannah being out of sorts and May not wanting to upset anyone. What was gonna happen to May? She was a woman in her fifties going back to school. May said hospitals needed all kinds of help, but her sister wasn’t so sure they’d hire someone May’s age. June shook her head. She had enough to worry about with Mama getting older and Bryan in jail without worrying about May.

June reversed the car and drove another block to her own home, an old, rambling two-story farmhouse with a long, wide porch that was much in need of paint. And those old chairs on the porch with their worn-out cushions ought to be dumped. Every time she suggested that to Eddy, he’d agree, give her a hug, and say he’d get to it soon. He was well intentioned, but he didn’t get to things right off. Well, she couldn’t stress about that now. One of these days she’d get someone, maybe Bryan when he got out of jail, when he got his license back, to bring his pickup and carry them old chairs to the city dump.

When June drove away, Ida went inside, locked the doors back and front. Then she heated up some bean soup left from the night before and swallowed several Aleve tablets to ease the arthritic ache that tortured her back and shoulders at the end of the day. After finishing the soup, she brewed a cup of tea, doused it with hot milk and plenty of sugar to sweeten it up good, for it served as dessert. Ida carried the cup to the living room and turned on Wheel of Fortune, which she watched daily with religious fervor. Phone could ring, people could knock on her door; when Ida watched Wheel, she ignored everyone and everything. There was Vanna’s smiling, pretty face. My Lord, Ida wondered, what does that girl do with all them dresses? She never wears none of ’em more than once.