“To the city, I suppose. For the night, anyway. I need to call my sister, and the lawyers, no doubt.” She seems to tower over him at this moment, although she is only five feet three and not wearing heels, not even the espadrilles he’d bought her at that Wal-Mart on the way in. “I need to handle a few things.”

“I can’t tell them that! I mean, they’re only …”

“What, children?”

“Yes.”

“Children bounce back. They do, that’s their lot in life.”

“Wait …”

“You explain things and on Saturday we’ll get them on a train, back into town, and they’ll be out of your hair.” She smiles some inner smile at this. “Then you can go back over the fence …”

“But I don’t want to.”

“Then don’t.”

“I want to … I mean, I’d like to, I’d really like to see if we could …”

“What?” She waits for him to finish but he only repeats the previous phrases over and over. Trying to jumpstart a solution but never getting past the opening. Finally, she picks up her bag, tests the weight of it, then moves toward the door. He doesn’t stop her.

“Do you want me to carry that down or … ?”

“No, no, it’s fine. You’ve done enough, believe me …”

“I love you guys. I do.” He didn’t want to have to pull that one out, not at this late date but he goes for it. Pitches the love thing out there like a final horseshoe.

“Well, that’s something you can hang on to, isn’t it? You can tell the kids that, if it helps … tell them I love them, too.”

“We were just talking … we spent time on the same campus, for Chrissakes!”

“Yeah, I caught that part …”

“We did …”

“I know.”

“And we had some …”

“When did you become so pathetic?” This isn’t meant to be rhetorical.

“… I’m not sure.”

“Huh.” She stands at the door now, flicking the light switch off more from habit than anything. He pulls his arms in and around his exposed upper body now, stands in the semidark staring at his departing wife. She starts down a step then turns back, rotates even, and comes into the room again. “Tell me one thing …”

“Yes?”

“Just one.”

“OK.”

“What position did he play?”

“Huh?”

“Our neighbor … the guy who was sucking your dick.” This is new for her, this strong language thing, and she seems to be enjoying it. “When you met him, what position was he playing?”

“Oh … catcher. He was their catcher.”

“… I see.” A pause, then a slight smile from her in the gloom.

“You do?”

“I get it now …”

“Get what?”

“The significance of it all.”

“What do you mean?”