She reached for the wineglass. “Come on, Mother,” she said. “Let’s go upstairs.”

Mrs. Haltom jerked her hand back, splashing wine on her nightgown.

Arch stepped forward and slung her arm around his shoulder.

“Go wait in the truck,” he said to me.

A few minutes later, Arch came out of the house, climbed into the truck, and started the engine.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said as we rolled down the long driveway.

If anything, I felt relieved. In Montague Village, someone’s mother staggering around blind drunk didn’t arouse much notice. It was somehow reassuring to learn that such things also happened on Belle Meade Boulevard.

When we reached Montague, Arch parked and cut the engine, perhaps waiting to see if I would invite him in. I had no intention of doing so. But neither was I eager to part from him.

“I guess I should be going,” he said. “See you Monday.”

“Okay.”

I stepped out and shut the door, and stood watching as Arch navigated out of the parking lot, following his taillights down the narrow side street until he made the turn onto Gallatin and disappeared.

four

On Monday morning, Arch waited for me outside Dean Varnadoe’s harbor with two grocery bags, filled with pairs of used Top-Siders and duck boots just half a size too large; some faded shirts with the little alligator on the lapel; khakis and button-down shirts only slightly frayed at the collar; and a nearly new navy blazer.

“Jamie can be a real asshole,” Arch said. “But he’s right about your shoes.”

I put on Arch’s Top-Siders and tossed my shoes in the garbage.

Abandoning my old life took no effort whatsoever. I woke and left the apartment an hour before the other kids in Montague went out to the bus stop, and returned after dark. No one seemed to miss me. Terrence had varsity football and a new set of friends. On nights when both Sunny and my mother were working, I might hear the rap of Louella’s cane on the door, inviting me over to have supper with her and sometimes Terrence, or offering a plate of hot food covered in tinfoil. Terrence hadn’t turned on me completely, but when we saw each other, neither of us could pretend that things had not changed between us. Hence, when I was home, I kept to myself, doing homework, yearning to be on the other side of the river in the lavish houses of Belle Meade.