Lester and Simon pulled out the cards and the cribbage board from under the pile of newspapers and bills on the table. The pegs were lost again so they broke the heads off some blue-tip matches and put them in the holes and started dealing. Caroline sat between them on the third chair and reached across for the funny pages.

Betty kept cutting the potatoes that Irma handed her and couldn’t stop laughing.

“Good God, girl. You’re whittling them down to toothpicks. Just take the rough stuff off. Here, like this.”

“They’re hiring downtown for construction workers,” said Simon.

“Good for them. No, honey. Hold the knife like this.”

“Pay’s good.”

“Even better for them.”

Lester hooted and pegged eight. Caroline crumpled the newspaper as loudly as she could to throw off Simon’s counting.

“One-Two said I could probably get on. Bein so tall he said I could probably get on.”

“Listen to him, and you’ll probably end up livin in a flophouse and not bein able to add. Just like him.”

“He can add. I need the money.”

“Yeah, like that, honey. Peel them just like that. What you need money for? You’re sixteen, you go to school. You come home. You go to school. What you need cash for?”

“It’s good work.”

“Yeah. Your daddy had good work too, and it ended him up under a tree.”

Simon didn’t say anything. He jammed the matchsticks down into the holes.

“Christ, bro. You gonna break them off in there.”

“There’s two hundred fuckin matches in the box. Don’t worry about it.”

Betty spun away from the sink.

“You watch your mouth around the girls.”

“Yeah,” said Lester, “you watch your mouth.”

Betty put her hand on her hip.

“Lester, if you want your brother to kick your ass, provoke him somewhere else. Outside. This house is too small for a rumble.”

Caroline snickered into her newspaper.

“And you, girlie. You’d better be laughing at the comics.” Betty blew imaginary bangs from her forehead. “What do I gotta do? Hog-tie and gag all you just so I can cook your dinner in peace?”

“You don’t gotta hog-tie me!” squealed Irma from the sink.

“Naw. I just gotta enroll you in peelin school.” She wiped her hand on her pant leg and stroked Irma’s hair and dug in the coin jar above the sink and withdrew a dime.

“Simon. Run over and call One-Two for dinner. That is if he ain’t sloshed down at the CC Club already.”

Simon was surprised but said nothing.

“Go get him after your game.”

“You mean after he loses,” boasted Lester.

“You can’t even count. I’m gonna win anyway.”

Simon threw his card down and extracted himself from the kitchen.