June stood in front of the screen and flipped her dish towel in his direction. “How come that doesn’t sit right with me? No. It’s something else, and I aim to find out just what’s going on.”

Eddy turned the sound to where it hurt her ears, and June hurried from the room, slamming the door behind her.

Being as she was the receptionist at the beauty parlor on Elk Road, June was privy to all kinds of gossip, some true, some false. She’d heard that four Winnebagos had come busting into Covington and parked themselves at the campground by the river. Someone said there were lots of kids running around instead of being in school, clotheslines strung from trees, and women washing clothes in the river.

“Is that permitted, the soap and all going in the water?” someone had asked.

No one knew for sure. June hadn’t given it another thought, until now. She’d check with Mama, of course. Eddy was probably right. She had a tendency to overreact. If someone stopped by to ask directions and Mama offered him a glass of tea, nothing wrong with that, and he seemed like a decent sort of fellow.

Ida waited all morning for Ray Wilson to return. Had he been injured on his job? Had he taken sick? He must be sick. Colds that settled into the chest were going around. Her cousin Betty Austin was so bad she had to go to the hospital and get treated for pneumonia. They’d nearly lost her, and it was weeks until her cough finally went away.

June had been high and mighty when she’d stopped by at noon and heard that Ray hadn’t returned as promised. “If he’s so nice like you say and he’s sick, surely he’d a found a way to send a message, have someone make a phone call. I bet you’ll never see him again.”

Chills passed right through Ida. Her stomach knotted so hard it hurt. She’d given Ray $650, plus $100, just about all her Social Security check. The check had just been deposited in her bank, and she’d drawn out the money. She should have written him a check. Then she could have run to the bank and canceled it. But he’d said he needed cash for supplies now, and she’d felt she couldn’t pass up the chance to spruce the place up a bit, replace the gutter, and save the roof from a tree he’d said he’d trim as a special favor to her. It had seemed like a lot for not too much money. June and even Eddy, she had thought, would be proud of her when it was done.

The hours ticked by; three o’ clock slipped into four o’clock, and Ida wanted to weep. By five o’clock, when June stopped in again, she was in tears.