“Crimes?”

“These are their true inner selves.” Smirking, tossing Leather Barbie back on the shelf.

They went downstairs again, sitting outside the sliding glass doors in the fresh air. Mrs. Nickelsen was still resting. Ben came up from the basement, sweaty, his body gleaming, tee shirt sticking to him; he said hello to Nina and they talked in hushed voices, to keep from waking their mother. She asked him what had happened to him that he brought home a decent person for a friend. He smirked and asked her whether she had any friends or if she still hid in her apartment all day. She threw a little rock at him. He ran upstairs.

“You want to teach this stuff you’re studying?” Ronny asked.

“Maybe. Maybe go into politics. Maybe go to law school when I get done with my women’s studies degree. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Law school for me, too. Or else I want to work for a newspaper.”

“It sounds like fun to me, being somebody’s advocate in a court, or whatever. Knowing how the law works.”

“My ma always wanted me to be a doctor.”

“Mine used to say that to me, too, that I was smart enough to be a doctor and it was getting to where a woman could be one if she wanted to.”

“Good that she pushed you some.”

She was getting a little irritated again and frowned. “You know, you kind of overdo this find-the-virtue thing.”

“She didn’t try to make you settle down and get married, right?”

Nina nodded, considering. “I guess she never nagged at either me or Ben that way, that I remember. It was more neat-freak stuff than anything else around here. And general worship of Ben.”

“Obnoxious?”

“Please. Try being the big sister of a football hero. You don’t even get to do the hero worship or sneak peeks at him in the shower, like the little sister would do.” She got out a pack of cigarettes and lit one. “At least I was old enough that we were only in school together one year.”

“How were you guys before that?”

She shrugged. “We were mostly fine. We still are. He knows I don’t give a fuck about football. Mom doesn’t like it either, much, but she adores her son. But then he started dating these godawful girls that never used their head for anything but a makeup display.” She was quiet, shaking her head. “Things calmed down when I went to college, anyway. I like him better now. The family kind of shut down this last couple of years. I don’t know. Maybe Mom was getting sick and running out of energy. Or maybe it was both of us kids being gone from home.”

“Seems like he goes to see you pretty often.”

“We’re so close together, why wouldn’t he? He’s my bud, even if he is an ape.”

She got up to look at her mom, then came back and whispered, “I’m going upstairs to talk to Ben a minute, okay? You sit with her?”