Here I was, far from home, talking with someone who knew me but didn’t know Perley, the best part of me, the part of me I’d ruined. I’d hoped to avoid talking to Shane or anyone else about the details. I kept it as brief as possible. “Government says me and Lily have to put in a septic system or lose our kid. Where am I going to get that kind of money quick?” I said. If Shane was surprised, he didn’t say anything about it, adding to the list of things I was surely meant to be grateful for.

“Boy or girl?” he asked. Just for a moment, I thought he meant me.

“Boy,” I said. “Seven years old. What about you? Any little Shanes running around somewhere?”

“I hope not,” he said. “I’m dating here and there, nothing serious. I’ve got a friendship with a woman who runs the motel you’ll be staying at. She’s from down in the hills, too.”

“You booked me a room?” I asked. “Better be cheap. I’m here to save money, not spend it.”

“Only place cheaper is where the guys stay,” Shane said.

“I’ll just stay in the cheapest place,” I said.

“You don’t want to stay out there,” he said. “It’s dangerous for a woman. I told you. Don’t be stubborn about this.”

We passed a Walmart Supercenter, then came up over a rise to rows and rows of container units, back and back and back, all white and beige, laid out neatly in a grid like refrigerators on the moon. It took me a minute to see that each container had one window, and an aluminum door. I guess you could call these signs of humanity. It was a ghost town this time of day, everyone at work.

“That’s two hundred people,” Shane said. “All men. No wives, no children. And they’re bored. And they’re lonely. You don’t want to be staying out there.”

“If you’re talking about rape,” I said, “I know plenty of people wouldn’t get bored or lonely enough to rape someone.”

“Hey, you’re preaching to the choir here,” he said.

We pulled up in front of a fetid motel, meant to be seafoam green. The office out front flashed a VACANCY sign, and there were shacks lined up behind it, uneven cement pathways running between them, brown grass, hardened black snow by the curbside. If it wasn’t a step up from the moonscape, at least it looked as cheap.

I waited outside while Shane went into the office and brought me back a key. He said he’d pick me up at 5:00 a.m., said don’t worry about breakfast he’d bring me an egg sandwich, said he’d bring me coffee, too. I just kept saying thank you until he drove off.