TJ watched John Wesley dig into his blue jeans for a tiny sandwich. She shivered some more as she hugged her arms around herself. She looked at the girl and girl grinned back at her, so much time, space, and money separating them. But the girl looked at TJ as if she was looking at something made of gold or altogether new.

“We need money,” TJ said, just kind of blurting it out. “And a phone. Especially a phone. I’ll pay you back. I swear on it.”

The girl said her name was Anna and that this was her family’s house. She was tall, with glossy, dark brown hair and perfect teeth and skin, pretty in her big puffy coat with a fur-lined hood. TJ watched as the girl wandered back to her friends, four other girls, and they all reached into their purses and pockets like they were at some kind of church revival. Raise your hands. Praise the Lord. They did it secret and slow, eyes darting around the party to see if anyone noticed. Anna came back and pressed a wad of cash into TJ’s hand. “There you go. You’re one of us.”

“What about a phone?” TJ asked.

“You can have mine,” she said. “But can we take a selfie first?”

“You can’t post it.”

“I know,” she said. “I’ll mail it to myself. You know. For when it’s all over.”

TJ felt her face heat up, reaching for John Wesley’s hand, and looking back at the girl. “You mean when I’m dead?” she asked. “Shit. This ain’t no goddamn reality show, Anna. I swear to you this shit is real.”

“That’s not what I mean,” she said. “I’m sorry.”

TJ nodded slow as the girl stepped up, reaching her arm around TJ’s waist, pulling her close and stretching out her camera from both of them. TJ didn’t smile but looked dead center of the camera lens on the phone.

“That sure is a cute coat,” TJ said. “Looks warm.”

TJ slid into it as she and John Wesley headed across St. Charles. Pride was long, long gone.

*   *   *

Dusty and Daddy parked on Calhoun, right down the street from the address Mr. Stagg had given them. There wasn’t a damn thing to it, punching up the number on that telephone and riding this way and that on those crazy one-way streets till they found the old house. A basic two-story with busted, worn-out shingles saddled up against a big green park with water, and twisty old trees that grew more sideways than straight up and down like back home. Daddy took a piss in the park while Dusty kept an eye on that house. It was coming up on midnight, but all the lights were on, Dusty not seeing much but some shirtless guy with tattoos coming to the window to smoke a cigarette.