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-Fine, he answered, but he didn’t look at the menu on the wall, just kept his eyes on her I’ll have a cheeseburger A cheeseburger and a Coke

As she wrote down the order and the words swam in her vision, she realized she had started to cry She felt like she hadn’t slept in a ht of exhaustion was held up only by the thinnest sliver of her will There was a ti with her life-cut hair, et her certificate, open a little shop, o or Des Moines, rent an apartment, have friends She’d always held in herin a restaurant, a coffee shop but nice; it was fall, and cold outside, and she was alone at a s a book On her table was a stea of tea She would look up to theto see the people on the street of the city she was in, hustling to and fro in their heavy coats and hats, and see her own face there, too, reflected in the , hovering over the ie of all the people outside But as she stood there, these ideas seeed to a different person entirely Now there was A she’d gotten at the ratty day care where she spent the days while Jeanette orking at the Box, and her father dead just like that, so fast it was as if he’d fallen through a trapdoor on the surface of the earth, and Bill Reynolds sitting at the table like he’d just stepped out for a second, not four years

-Why are you doing this tomoment and touched the top of her hand-Meetin the house with her and Amy She couldn’t say if she had invited him to do this or if it had just somehow happened Either way, she was instantly sorry This Bill Reynolds: as he really? He’d left his wife and boys, Bobby and Billy in their baseball suits, all of it behind in Nebraska The Pontiac was gone, and he had no job either; that had ended, too The econoodda He said he had a plan, but the only plan that she could see see for A up the breakfast dishes, while she worked all day at the Box He hit her the first ti there threeand said, over and over, how sorry he was He was on his knees, blubbering, like she’d done so, how hard it all was, all the changes in his life, it was more than alike that would happen again, ever He swore it Not to her and not to A she was sorry too

He’d hit her over hoil ain

-Goddamnit, woman Can’t you see I’ the side of her head He’d hit her hard enough to lift her off her feet Funny, now that she was down there she sa dirty the floor was, filthy and stained, with cluainst the base of the cabinets where you couldn’t usually see Half herthis while the other half said, You aren’t thinking straight, Jeanette; Bill hit you and knocked a wire loose, so now you’re worrying over the dust So with the way the world sounded, too A television upstairs, on the little set in her roo inside her head, Barney the purple dinosaur and a song about brushing your teeth; and then fro away, its engine grinding as it turned out of the drive and headed down the county road

-It ain’t your house, she said

-You’re right about that Bill took a bottle of Old Crow froh it was only ten o’clock in the s like he et comfortable Ain’t my oil, either

Jeanette rolled over and tried to stand but couldn’t She watched hi his head, and took a sip of whiskey

-That’s funny, he said You telling me that from the floor like you are

-I mean what I say Get out

A the stuffed bunny she still carried everywhere, and wearing a pair of overalls, the good ones Jeanette had bought her at the outlet mall, the OshKosh B’Gosh, with the strawberries embroidered on the bib One of the straps had co at her waist Jeanette realized Ao to the bathroom

-You’re on the floor, Maot to her feet to show her Her left ear was ringing a little, like in a cartoon, birds flying around her head She saw there was a little blood, too, on her hand; she didn’t knohere this had come from She picked Amy up and did her best to smile See? Mao, honey? You need to use the potty?

-Look at you, Bill was saying Will you look at yourself? He shook his head again and drank You stupid twat She probably ain’t even irl said and pointed, you cut yourself Your nose is cut

And whether it hat she’d heard or the blood, the little girl began to cry

-See what you done? Bill said, and to Aue, that’s just how it is

-I’ain, just leave

-Then ould you do, tell me that You can’t even fill the oil tank

-You think I don’t know that? I sure as by God don’t need you to tellher, Jeanette felt the spread of hot irl released her bladder

-For Pete’s sake, shut that kid up