Annie felt oddly shy to see Lew sitting there on Ruth’s porch after what happened in the barn yesterday. She was glad he hadn’t let it go too far.

She and Raj joined him. She sat beside the sleeping Fifty-Three, lifting his head gently into her lap and rubbing his soft, loose throat. After they had told Lew about their day in school, the three of them were quiet, listening to Fifty-Three snoring.

Finally Annie said, “How old you reckon Miss Kelly is, then?”

“Old,” Lew said. “Like thirty-five, maybe.”

“But she’s a pretty woman, ain’t she?”

Lew shrugged.

“Ain’t she, Raj?”

Raj had lifted one of Fifty-Three’s ears into his hand and was examining it as one might a fallen leaf. “She’s all right.”

“Wonder why she never married,” Annie said.

“Maybe no one ever asked her,” Raj said.

“Why, though?”

The boys seemed tired of this subject and neither answered.

“I couldn’t live like her.”

“You mean without a manly man?” Hiking the sleeve of his T-shirt over his shoulder, Raj tensed the small bicep of his thin arm.

“Alone like that,” she said. “I want to have children. Lots of children.”

“She seems happy enough,” Lew said.

“She’s going to teach school in Pisgah until she’s an old lady,” Annie said. “Puts her whole life into it. I helped her decorate the classroom last Christmas. Jeez, she was so excited. It was like she was a little kid. She went all red. I wanted to ask her if she’d ever had a boyfriend, just…what she ever thought about.”

Jumping up, Raj grabbed the bird’s nest he had pulled out of the gutter a few days ago, put it on his head, and began to imitate Miss Kelly. “Lewis, tardy again. Now, class, let’s take Annie. Annie’s dad is Italian, which is European. Her mom is Polish, which is also European. But the Polish are lighter than the Italians. Oh, I don’t mean that, Aaron. I mean—well, think of Europe as a chicken: chicken’s legs, Italy, dark meat, and very tasty they are too; chicken’s breast—I’m talking metaphorically, of course—white meat, her mom. Well, I’m glad you prefer breasts, Seamus, but that’s not really the point. Personally I like a good leg…I mean I like my meat dark…. Oh…oh, my”—he fluttered his hands against his face—“oh, my!”

Lew was laughing and Annie was trying to stop herself.

“Will you ever forgive her?” she said. “That was two years ago.”

“I was scarred.” Raj took off the nest and sat back down.

After a moment, Lew ventured quietly, “What about Ruth, then?”

“She was with someone,” Raj said.

“Not for years, though,” Lew said.

“Ruth’s different,” Annie said. “I could live like Ruth. I couldn’t live like Miss Kelly. She kissed me.”

“On the lips?” Raj said.