They go to a gate by the left field foul post that says EMPLOYEES. Momma waves at an old man in a yellow-gold polo and says, “Hey, Troy.” He waves back.

“Who’s the whippersnapper?” The old man reaches for Alex. His hand is knobby and crooked-looking and he has big white hairs coming out of his nose.

“Rawr!” Alex lunges at the man.

“My baby, Alex.” She swipes her ID in a machine on the wall that makes a loud beep. She puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m not a baby!” Alex wiggles out of her grip.

“How old are you, young man?”

“Seven.” The machine beeps again and a light on it turns green.

“Almost,” Momma says. “He’s six till next month.”

“Definitely not a baby.” Troy nods, and smiles at Alex with yellow teeth. “You working one twenty-two again?”

Momma shakes her head. “They have me over at section one thirteen today. You’re gonna have to walk farther for those free hot dogs, Troy.”

“And you’ll have to go farther for your lemonade.” He winks.

“Lemonade?” Alex spots a small cooler behind Troy. “I want some!”

Momma tugs at Alex’s shoulder. “It’s for grown-ups, sweet pea. Come on, I’ll get you a soda pop.”

They pass a concession stand and she waves and says, “Hi, Dot,” to a lady putting on her apron, and they walk by a guy driving around a small tractor with a big cube of Cracker Jack wrapped up in Saran Wrap.

When they get to her stand Momma starts popping the popcorn and thawing hot dogs and getting out the salt so she can salt the pretzels. By accident Alex spills a can of popcorn butter on the floor and then he slips in it and gets butter on his butt. She makes him clean up the mess with wadded paper towels and when he can’t do it very well she sighs and says, “Just forget about it, Alex,” and takes him by the hand and walks him up the aisle and into the empty stadium and tells him to sit down. She says that he can’t leave the seat until the person who owns that seat shows up, and when that happens he has to come right back to the hot dog stand and sit in the corner and not touch anything, definitely not any more popcorn butter.

“Don’t move a muscle, Alex,” she says again before going back to the stand, glaring and looking meaner than a wet cat. Last week Michelle told Alex that Momma’s on drugs again and that’s why she’s mad and mean and skinny, and Alex thinks maybe that’s true but maybe Michelle is jealous that Momma is skinny and Michelle isn’t. When Momma got a nosebleed Tuesday night Michelle whispered, See, I told you, and Alex was confused because he thought you got nosebleeds from being in the nosebleed seats at the football stadium, not from doing drugs or working on the ground floor. Michelle says Randy sells drugs and that’s why Momma likes him so much, but Alex thought Momma liked him because he had pretty eyeballs.