She slid the chain out of the slide. He tried the door, but it was locked. “You gotta open it from the inside,” he said. “Mel? Open the door.” She turned the doorknob.

The force blew open the door. It knocked her on the floor between the beds. He lifted her up and threw her on the bed. She lay there, limp, expecting the worst. She wouldn’t resist. She held on to the thought of tomorrow. She didn’t want anything to get in its way. But nothing happened. She didn’t know where he was. It took her a minute to realize that he was next to her, sitting on the bed with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

He had left the door ajar. She rolled over and dove for it. With one hand, he caught the back of her sweater, and with the other, reached out and swatted the door. It closed with a quiet steel click. He held her by the collar like a kitten.

“You’re not going nowhere,” he said. “We gotta stick together, you and me. I’ve told you and told you and told you, but you don’t listen. You can’t just split off and go—this world will eat you alive. You don’t know that yet, because you haven’t been anywhere.”

He was breathing hard.

“For two days now, two whole days, I been riding around, visiting one motel after the other. I knew I’d find you, because we’re meant to be. You know what else I knew, though?” He chuckled in her ear. “I knew you’d sign your own name.” He was holding the collar on the sweater so tight she couldn’t get her fingers inside it. “I offered you a life, but you wouldn’t take it. You didn’t want it. But you’re no better’n me. You’re dirt. From nowhere. You’re nothing.”

“Mike,” she whispered.

“Say it,” he insisted. “‘I’m nothing.’ Say it once. Then we’ll forget this whole thing ever happened. We’ll start over.”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Say it.” He loosened the collar. “Say it.”

“Okay,” she gasped, sucking air back into her lungs.

“Say it.”

With one motion, she twisted around, grabbed the telephone by the bed, and hit him with it on the bridge of his nose. She sprang off the bed for the door. Her hand was on the doorknob, but in another second, she was on the floor again. His knee was against her throat. His whole weight was on her chest.

“Bloody my fucking nose, you piece of shit.”

She tried to push him off, but it was like being under a building. He was just too heavy. A blow to her face, and she was choking on blood.

“You piece of white trash.” He hit her again. She heard popping, cracking noises in her head.