Even if she did go to the pawnshop, she wouldn’t be able to write tickets for the customers, or price tags that said “$11.” She felt utterly defeated, and this feeling made her angry and defiant. What had she done to deserve this? She punched the counter, and then held her aching fist.

Her phone rang. She pulled it out, and the woman next to her slipped in an earpiece so she could listen along.

“Hello, Mom?”

“Hello, dear!” Her mom didn’t quite grasp that phones bridged the distance between people, so shouting was unnecessary.

“I’m sorry, Mom. I’m busy at work right now.” The woman with the clipboard, one hand on the earpiece, raised an eyebrow at her, and Jackie waved it off. “Do you need something?”

“I can’t just call my child? I have to need something?”

“Of course you can, Mom, that’s not what I—”

“But now that you mention it . . .”

“See?” Jackie mouthed to the woman with the clipboard. The woman shrugged.

“What is it, Mom?”

“I need to talk to you.”

“I’m glad we could talk then. Was there anything else?” Jackie wrote “KING CITY” on the counter again and cringed.

“No. I need to talk to you in person. It’s important. I have something to tell you. It’s about . . . Well, it’s better if you just come and we can talk about it.”

Jackie’s eyes burned. She wasn’t sure if it was an allergic reaction. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this sensation. She touched the corner of her eye. It was wet. There was water coming from her eyes and trickling down her cheeks, and she knew she was crying but she wasn’t sure if she had ever cried before. She let all the air that was in her out, without using her mouth to make that air communicate anything. This lack of communication communicated a great deal.

“Jackie, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m wherever I am. Here I am. Mom, have I ever . . . I mean, do you ever remember a time when I . . .”

She looked up and froze without actually stopping movement. The freezing happened inside.

One of the cooks was staring at her. He was tall and blond. His smile was wide and warm, and it unnerved her. He was flipping burgers (who was ordering burgers this early in the morning?), but he wasn’t taking his eyes off of her, so the burgers were landing on the floor, in the sink, on the edge of the griddle, in a haphazard splash pattern starting from where his spatula tossed them. His smile was so wide and so warm. Jackie didn’t feel safe.

“Jackie, come on over. I think this is a good time to tell you.”

“Okay, Mom. Okay, I’ll be there. I just have a few things I need to do first.”

She shut off the phone and her mom was gone.