“Fix chicken house?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” She handed him her purse. He opened it, took out the wad, and counted it. Over five hundred dollars! He took five twenties and rolled up the rest of it.

“I’m going to take a hundred and buy some materials. When the work is all finished, you can pay me for my time, okay?”

She just smiled at him. He put the bills in her hand. “I’m taking this.” He held up the twenties. “You pay me more later.”

“Yes. Okay.”

Leon looked around the little house. “Let’s find some place to hide the rest of this money. He looked at the cookie jar, a big fat bear sitting up. He took the wad from her slack hand and went to the counter, lifting up the bear’s head. “The rest of the money is here, okay?”

Martha giggled. Money inside the bear. “Okay!”

Leon finished his lemonade. “I’m going now to buy supplies. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Back?”

He nodded.

“Which square?” She pointed at the calendar on the wall.

“Tomorrow.”

“Next square.”

“Yes.” He stood up and looked down at her. She was really something. Slow, yes, but there was something else, nice, trusting, like a little puppy.

“You leaving?” She pushed her chair back and got up, came right over to him and hugged him hard. He felt a lot different from Priscilla. She was small and tiny, and Martha’s arms went all the way around her. Leon was much taller, and his back was wide and strong. It surprised her how different he felt.

Leon stood there, unprepared. He looked down into the gray curls; then, helpless to move, he gave her a light hug back.

“Friends hug,” she said. Priscilla had taught her that. Now he understood, and gave her a good squeeze. She was soft and mushy under his arms and against his chest. Not at all like the skinny girls he took to the drive-in movies. They were slim and bony and they slithered around a lot under his hot hands. Martha was a woman, plump, soft, and cuddly. He felt himself push against the inside of his jeans. Jesus, Leon, you adolescent punk. He released her and quickly went out the door, waving.

“See you tomorrow!” He backed around and drove off in a cloud.

Martha sat back down in her chair, her fingers automatically searching out the imperfections in her nose. She thought of Leon, nice, tall boy. He felt good to hug, the place where his body touched hers still felt warm and tingly.

She smiled inside. A new friend, she thought. A whole new world was opening up right in front of her eyes. She’d spent her whole life here in this house with just her mother and father, and now she was finding that there were so many other things out there.