I wasn’t ready for us to take that risk, not yet.

I kissed Allen lightly on the mouth.

“I need to go,” I said.

“Don’t,” Allen said, then mashed his lips roughly against mine. His fingers tried to loosen the metal button on my jeans. I jerked my mouth free from his.

“No,” I said, in a harsh tone. I laid my palms against Allen’s chest and pushed. Like a puppet suddenly unstrung, his whole body gave way. He rolled on his back.

“Oh, God. I’m sorry, Maggie,” he whispered.

I rubbed a finger across my upper lip. No blood, but it would be swollen. I got off the bed. For a few moments I stood there hoping one of us might find some word or gesture that would make things right again. But none came.

I walked over to the door and put my hand on the knob. I let go and turned toward the bed.

“Are you going to the meeting tomorrow?”

“Yes,” he said. “Why not? I’ve seen it through this far. I owe it to someone, I’m just not sure who.”

“I’ll go with you,” I said.

I looked out the window a last time, the sun lower in the sky but the sky still blue. Just a few more hours.

“Do you want me to open the curtains?”

“No,” Allen said. “Leave them closed.”

I DID NOT GO BACK TO MY ROOM. INSTEAD, I LEFT THE MOTEL and walked the half mile to Billy’s store. I stepped onto the porch and opened the screen door. Wanda sat on a stool behind the counter. The boys knelt beside the drink box building a cabin with Lincoln logs.

“Maggie,” Wanda said when I came in. It was a perfunctory greeting.

I crossed the store to the second row of shelves and picked up a bottle of aspirin.

“One forty-eight,” Wanda said when I placed the bottle on the counter. She took the dollar bills from my hand without looking at me and opened the cash register.

“Where’s Billy tonight?” I asked.

Wanda looked at me then. “He’s gone over to see Jill Moseley and the children. See if there’s anything he can do for them.”

The boys heard the harshness in their mother’s voice. They stopped building and looked up at her, then at me.

“You know of anything I can do to help out?”

“No,” Wanda said. “We’ll do what can be done.”

The register made a clapping sound as Wanda shoved it closed.

“This ain’t Columbia,” Wanda said. “We still look after our own.”

“I grew up here,” I said. “I know that.”