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“I do”

He sighed and looked up at her “He said, ‘Anywhere but here’”

“He said that?”

“If it helps, he pret’ near looked ready to cry”

The man pulled out a cruh the iron bars of the ticket“He said to give you this”

“He knew I’d come?”

“Wives always do”

She drew in a steadying breath “So, if he had no money, maybe—”

“He done what they all do”

“All?”

“Men all over the county been leavin’ their families Families been abandonin’ their kids and kin I never seen nothing like it A man over in Cimarron County kilt his whole family ’fore he left”

“Where do they go with no money?”

“West, ma’ah town”

“Maybe he’ll come back”

The hed “I ain’t seen one of ’em come back yet”