More silence.

“What about you?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

“Who, me? I’m great. What a marvelous day, what a delightful jailhouse.”

She laughed. It felt good to laugh. “Now you’re the one who’s pretending. I just wanna go home.”

“Home,” he said.

She couldn’t think of anything else to say. She wanted this man to like her. He seemed like a genuine person. But words were hard for her to find, and she was too busy wondering what would become of her.

She was ridden with irrational fears that would not leave her. She wondered what people thought of her. She wondered if they were right. And she wondered what this young man thought of her. He probably thought she was a freak after what he’d seen her do. She wasn’t so sure she wasn’t some kind of freak.

“You ever been to the Gulf of Mexico?” he said.

She rolled over on the cot to face him. “You mean the beach?” she said.

“Yeah.”

“Sure. It’s not far from here.”

“Is it everything they say it is? You know how people exaggerate about stuff.”

“It really is. It’s breathtaking. You’d like it.”

“It seems like every time I get close to it, it gets farther away from me.”

“I know what you mean.”

And in fact, she did know what he meant. Sometimes it felt like everything she had ever loved drifted from her before she got close to it. Sometimes she wondered if the universe was against her.

“I heard the water’s bluish green,” said Coot. “Like emeralds and such. Heard it looks like a fairy-tale drawing.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But it’s the sand that’s really impressive. It’s so white, it looks like snow.”

“Really?”

“Yep. First time I went to the beach, I thought the dunes were made of sugar. The girls all told me it was made of sugar, and I believed them.”

“I’d like to see that one day.”

“You really should.”

Coot wandered to her cot and sat beside her. She heard him breathe. They were shoulder to shoulder.

“Will you take me?” he said.

Marigold had no idea what was to become of her life. The whole world seemed uncertain and unsteady to her. She wasn’t sure if she could commit to such fantasies, and she wasn’t sure it would do anyone any good to pretend that she could. But something about kindness from another made her feel hopeful.

“Of course I will,” she said.

“Promise?”

“Sure, why not.”

More silence.

“Marigold, are you scared?”

She liked the way he said her name. There was a familiarity to his voice. It was as though he were already family. “Yes,” she said. “I am.”

“Yeah, I was too.”

“Was?”