One time, Margo had a two-for-one coupon and brought us a whole bag of name-brand cheese puffs and they were the best thing I’d ever tasted. My dad and I ate a few handfuls, and then he went out on a job. I put the bag away on top of the fridge, closed up with a twist tie, but I just kept thinking about those cheese puffs. I couldn’t pay attention to the TV. I didn’t even want to leaf through Margo’s hand-me-down catalogs. All I could do was think about those cheese puffs. I went back again and again. At first I closed the bag up after every handful, but then I just gave up and went whole hog. I ate until the bag was empty and the roof of my mouth had strings of skin peeling off. I even turned the bag upside down and poured every last bit of cheese powder in my mouth. I think that’s the way Molly Walker felt about gambling. When she wasn’t doing it, she just couldn’t think about anything else. And when she was all out of every other last thing to gamble, she bet the motorhome.

Most of the men in town wouldn’t play with her anymore, either out of pity for poor Hank Walker or because they didn’t like to gamble with a woman to begin with. My dad didn’t have any problem gambling with a woman and he flat out didn’t like Hank Walker, so he and Molly sat at our kitchen table playing five-card until it was so late it was morning again. Molly bet Hank’s tackle box. Dad bet his wrench set. Molly bet her winter coat and said she’d cut it down for me too. Dad bet his snow tires. Molly bet tuna casseroles every Friday for six months. Dad bet shoveling her roof all winter. Molly bet something in a low voice that made Dad blush. Dad bet his next paycheck. Molly bet the motorhome and called it a see and raise. Dad said since it didn’t even have a motor it was just a see and since it was so late he wanted to call it, and that’s how we got the motorhome.

Hank left Molly the next day. Took his tackle box before Dad could claim it. Dad got the idea that we could live in this motorless motorhome while he built a real house. “I just need to get us a spread of land,” he kept saying. I pictured someone taking a knife and spreading land out in front of us like peanut butter on a slice of bread.