“Well, the thing is…” Coralee pauses for a moment, and for the first time I realize she looks a little sad, wilted around the edges despite the huge hair. “I thought my mama might come today. She said she would when she phoned last week, so I figured there was a fifty-fifty chance. But then the landlord from our old apartment called Dane today. Said she’d skipped out on the rent, disappeared.”

Disappeared. We let the word hang there like a deflated balloon. I want Coralee to look at me, but she’s picking at the couch cushion like it’s her job. I’ve never had a close enough friend to feel like I let them down, until now. I should have remembered the pageant. I wish I could reverse time and be there, so when she looked up in the crowd and didn’t see her mom, she’d at least have seen me.

“Do you know where she went?”

“Nah. She’ll turn up, though. She always does.” The way Coralee says it, all low and slow like Eeyore, I can’t tell if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Then she finally looks at me, and I have never seen her so serious in her life.

“Listen, Ellie, that’s why I had to come over.” She puts a hand on my chair. “I don’t have a lot of people. Dane, Susie, Bert, and you. That’s it. And none of us is what you’d call ‘normal.’ But you’re my family.”

Something inside me flips over like a pancake, and I know I can’t leave her.

I’m about to stir up a whole world of trouble. But I can’t help myself. I put a hand on Coralee’s satiny shoulder and say, “My mom’s moving us back to Nashville. And you’ve got to help me stop her.”

The plan is simple and comes together over a three-way call between me, Bert, and Coralee. The next afternoon I’m out on the porch shelling peas with Mema when they both come around the corner and march up the steps. Bert’s got his dad’s laptop under his arm.

“Afternoon, Mrs. Cowan. We’re looking for Ellie’s mom,” Coralee says. Today she’s wearing a pin-striped skirt and suit jacket, and her hair’s slicked back in a bun. Bert is right behind her in a suit and tie. They look like lawyers.

Mema takes one look at them and winks. “I’ll just see if I can’t find her, then.”

When Mom finally comes out and Bert leads her to the rocking couch, she eyes him like he’s a Jehovah’s Witness.

“Would you like some water, Ms. Cowan?” He’s brought his own and offers her a bottle.

“No, thank you. I’m just fine, Robert. Ellie, what’s this all about?”

I put on my best poker face.