“Where the hell you learn how to do that?” asks Ned, popping a smoke into his mouth.

“Used to be a short-order cook.”

“No shit, huh?” Ned bumps his chair back and walks over to the stove.

“Show me how.”

Boo grabs four more eggs.

“Okay, just sit them between your fingers. Sit them there and pop them on the counter. Don’t try the edge of the pan. No edges. You catch an edge and it’ll send crack lines long ways instead of sideways. See?”

He raps both hands on the counter and holds the eggs out so Ned can see the whites drip out.

“Now that they’re cracked, just keep your fingers bent at the end and move your first knuckles up to the ceiling. Pretend there’s a hinge on the backside of the egg.”

All the eggs slide from their shells into the pan.

“Damn,” whispers Ned in drunken awe, “where’d you cook at?”

“Stillwater café, right Boo?” says Betty from the couch.

“Naw, I was down in Saint Cloud. I wasn’t dangerous enough for Stillwater.”

“What’d you do?” asks Simon.

“I was in Duluth and drunker than hell and I got in the wrong car. Keys must have been in it cause I drove home. I drove all the way home but I went the wrong way on the highway and ended up in Wisconsin.”

Everyone laughs.

“Lincoln here?” ventures Simon, looking at Betty, but quickly dropping his eyes.

“God knows where he’s off to. What he’s doing.”

Ned, Boo and Jumbo don’t look at either Simon or Betty. They avert their eyes as if something embarrassing is happening—like interrupting a lover’s kiss, or seeing a parent naked after a bath.

“Probably just out gettin to know the place.”

Betty scoffs. “Probably out gettin to know what the county jail looks like. He’s hangin around that Burt kid, and that can’t be good. He don’t tell me though. Seems like bein a kid’s got to be a big secret these days.”

Simon doesn’t know what to say, so he draws out a smoke and lights it, turning away from Betty as if to get out of the wind.

Boo hands Ned four eggs while the eggs in the pan throw off breath. The light inside the house is buttery and thick with smoke and the steam from their clothes. Betty lights another cigarette as Boo and Ned whoop and cackle over the frying pan until all the eggs in the house are gone.