Lady Mae was putting the knives and scissors and electrical box on the long table in front of the chair when Ruby knocked on the door. The electrical box was a newer tool—her mother had told her she’d never actually used it, but the Deputies had shown up one day telling Lady Mae that she was required to offer it as an atonement choice no matter the crime. Too many missing fingers, they’d said. Ain’t going to have no one to do the work needed. Many of the residents had praised the advancement—they wouldn’t necessarily lose any more parts of themselves. But the tool was tricky, and despite Lady Mae’s best efforts, she left one resident catatonic. The Deputies had pardoned her—with advances come risks, they’d said. Still, the experience had kept sleep from her for months, and while she always made sure the patient could see the electrical box, she didn’t explain what it did unless asked directly.

Ruby banged on the wooden door several more times and yelled through the small, barred window that was shuttered. Lady Mae went to the door, stood on her toes and slid the shutter open. The stout woman, her long gray hair matted and her cheeks a swollen red, was inches from Lady Mae’s nose.

“Hello, Ruby.”

“Miss Hilvers.” She spoke loudly and moved her head to try to see behind Lady Mae.

“You’re a bit early.”

“Thought I’d come get it over with,” she said, realizing she could see nothing from where she stood outside of the door.

“I see,” said Lady Mae. “Just that it’s against the law to go early.”

“Don’t care about no law.”

“Well, I got to care about it.”

“Figure you do.”

Each woman looked at the other; one young, one old, facing each other through the iron bars. This was to be Ruby’s first atonement, and Lady Mae expected to see some kind of fear hiding behind the woman’s narrowed eyes, but her stare remained unwavering, her shoulders square.

“You come alone?” Lady Mae asked.

“Was told I had to do as much, and I ain’t the kind to be dishonest. You gonna let me in?”

“You just wait there now, and I’ll unlock this door at the appointed time.”

“Been waiting for this my whole life. Surprised I made it this long.”

Though Ruby still held her eyes to Lady Mae’s, her words became hurried, her breathing fast. She was afraid, though that was not all. There was an eagerness in her voice, a burning, throaty defiance. It was not rare for patients to show up at the depot with a mind to holler, but as soon as Lady Mae opened the door, they mostly fell silent, scared and regretful. The woman had not talked back to Lady Mae, not exactly. She wasn’t sure if Ruby was provoking her, if there were a bundle of brothers waiting on either side of the door to ambush her as she opened it.

The two women stared at each other, and Lady Mae waited for Ruby’s eyes to drop. But they didn’t. They remained unblinking and focused on Lady Mae, even as she closed the small wooden shutter of the barred window. Ruby’s presence, the stiffness behind her eyes, made Lady Mae’s skin crawl, and she was at a loss to understand why the woman—the only one in the settlement that ever spoke to Lady Mae directly—seemed ready to jump through the bars.