She didn’t bother to knock, just swung the screen door open. Martha and Leon were standing by the stove, Leon in cutoff jeans and tennis shoes, with no shirt. Martha looking frumpy as usual. What the hell was going on here?

“Pris!” Martha’s face lit up with a big warped smile, as she stretched her arms out and went toward her. Priscilla deftly parried her move and stood with feet apart, hands on hips, facing Leon.

“What are you doing here, Leon?”

“Making an omelet.”

“Don’t be smart. Are you fixing the chicken coop?”

“Yes.”

“And sleeping here as well?”

“What?”

“Well, you slept somewhere last night, because you didn’t come home.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I spent the night with Ned. At your place. And you didn’t show all night.”

“Ned? Jesus Christ, Priscilla, isn’t he a little young for you?”

“And isn’t she a little old for you, Leon? You pervert.”

“We fell asleep watching television last night.”

“Uh-huh. A likely story. So you’re here ripping her off for repair work and getting a little on the side, eh? You asshole.”

Leon looked at Martha standing there, bewildered, confused, sensing the tension but not understanding. He walked to Priscilla, took her elbow, and escorted her firmly to her car.

“Nothing is going on here, Priscilla. I’m being a friend to an old lady and fixing up her place a little, that’s all.”

“Is she paying you?”

“Of course she’s paying me.”

“I wonder if she got other bids for the job.”

“C’mon, Priscilla. Don’t be stupid.”

“You used to fix up around here for free.”

“That was . . .”

“That was before you found out she had money. I know all about it. Ned told me about the wad she flashed in Mike’s, and you’ve been here balling her ever since.”

Leon slapped her, his heavy hand leaving red fingermarks on her cheek.

Priscilla’s eye watered and her face flushed in humiliation and disbelief. She got into the car. “We’ll see what your parents have to say about this, Leon.” She drove off in a cloud of dust.

Leon stood there, watching the toes of his shoes, until he felt Martha’s hands on his arm. They walked slowly into the house together. Leon finished making the omelet. They ate in silence; then he went back to work.

Martha noticed he ate hardly anything. She felt a sadness, an emptiness in the pit of her stomach. Pris, Leon, her two friends. Now neither was her friend. What did she do?

When Leon finished work, he came into the house and took a shower. Martha had a beer waiting for him when he came back to the kitchen, and she sat with him at the kitchen table. He seemed in better spirits.