J​ESSE WON’T LET ME HOLD THE BABY. I ASK HIM TWICE TILL HE tells me to shut up. It’s in Johona’s lap in the back seat. I reach my hand out and it grabs my finger. I ask if it’s a boy or a girl and Johona says it’s a girl. What’s her name? I ask. I don’t know, Johona says.

She wants to take the baby to the police. No police, Jesse says, we’ll drop her at a hospital. Johona’s shaking. Drop me there too, she says, please. I promise I won’t say anything about what I saw. Jesse looks at her in the mirror and says, It’s not us you’ve got to worry about it’s that biker. He runs with a gang called the Fiends. He’ll be coming back to life and him and the rest of them will be after me for dusting that man and you for grabbing the baby.

The child makes a noise and Johona lays it over her shoulder. They won’t find me, she says, Phoenix is a big city. Not big enough, Jesse says. There’s a story about someone stealing one of their motorcycles. They chased the man for two years and when they finally caught up to him killed him and the woman he was traveling with and five other people two of them children who happened to be in the house. That’s how they are.

Johona looks like she’s gonna cry. What are they? she says. What are you? Jesse tells her most of it. How we can’t go out in the day. How we heal when we get hurt. How we ain’t never gonna die. It’s too much talking and I know it already. I want to play pinball. They got Space Time at the bowling alley and Quick Draw and Fireball. I’m good at all of ’em.

Johona asks Jesse if he kills people and drinks their blood like the Fiends do. He tells her no. He tells her me and him are a different kind of rover. He’s lying but I don’t squeal. Me and him have secrets. You got to be careful. You got to keep your mouth shut.

Johona sits back and strokes one of her braids. My dad’ll know what to do, she says, he’ll help me. What are you gonna tell him? Jesse says. Monsters are after you? He’ll think you’re crazy. And if the Fiends find out where your family lives they’ll kill them too. So what should I do? Johona says. Get out of town for a couple months at least, Jesse says, for good if possible. You were talking about going to California. Go now. I don’t have any money, Johona says, and my car’s a hunk of junk.