So many kinds of pain, she said, which was something she loved to say and then she said she knew what a real family was supposed to look like, one man one woman and their children all alike, lined up one two three searching for eggs in the coop. But you hardly ever saw that family anymore, Grandma Barlow said, that one man one woman children all alike. She rocked Altemonte and she held my hand and it felt so good like a giant marshmallow. Then she said the world was rotten to the core it surely was. She said, There was the man at your door saying that they could take your kid and take your house if you weren’t careful and the only way to make money was to work for the same people who said they could take your house, and people were sick, seemed like every week she heard of a new person with bone cancer, people younger than her, people who should have been old-timers but would not make it to old-time status, and it was hard to know what to do or who to blame. And the pastor said to pray so she was praying. That’s what Grandma Barlow said but I said, I’m not sick and Altemonte’s not sick, so maybe we don’t need to take that medicine.

So Grandma Barlow stopped rocking and noticed me again.

It’s those damn snakes, isn’t it? she said.

I am Friend of Snake, I said.

That may be, she said. But you can’t go home until the snakes are gone.

My mamas have tried everything, I said. They can’t get rid of them.

I’ll bet there’s one thing they haven’t tried, Grandma Barlow said.

Then she told me about the ritual.

Then I made her tell me again. Then she told me again. Then I said, Wait, hold on, and I went to my bunk and I got one of my comic books, and then I came back and I asked for a pencil and then I made Grandma Barlow tell me one more time, and I wrote down what she told me on the inside cover of ElfQuest, Book One: Fire and Flight. I wrote down what she told me word for word.

That week Mama L pushed me on the swing again and the Outside Girl sat far away pretending not to watch us. We chose the swing with the noisy rusted chain. That way we could talk. Mama L said, Tell me about Mrs. Barlow.

She’s basically the nicest, I said. She totally loves god. But still, I’m not her boy. Altemonte is her boy.

Mama L said, Piglet, you’re my boy. My boy and Mama K’s boy. I promise that I’m doing everything I can to bring you home.

When? I asked.

Soon, she said.

Does Mama K have the ransom yet? I asked.

She’s doing everything she can, Mama L said. She’s working very hard.