And when John Calvin was pissed off—Amanda had a sudden memory of him in school, standing frozen and angry when Tom Parker, who had gone to school with them all since they were three but who turned into a real jerk once he made the football team, sniffed the air around John Calvin and declared that suddenly, everything smelled like chicken shit. John Calvin just stood there, staring at Tom while Tom and his friends laughed, making a big deal of holding their noses. And while nobody saw who’d keyed Tom’s Trans Am on both sides in the school parking lot before the end of the day, everybody could guess.
Amanda pulled into the Frannie’s lot without caffeine but with an idea. A brilliant idea. Sabrina, holding a coffee, damn her, was just getting out of her little convertible. Amanda didn’t even bother to park, just pulled next to Sabrina and rolled down the passenger window.
“Hey,” she said. “Want to see something funny?”
Sabrina cocked her head to one side, then slipped into the passenger seat. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Well, first to Starbucks. Then you’ll see.”
MAE
Mae swung Barbara’s old truck onto the gravel of Mimi’s parking lot and hit the brakes. She was out almost before she slammed it into park, running across the lot, calling frantically for Barbara.
“Mom! Mom!” Her mother appeared in the doorway of Mimi’s, followed by Andy, Madison, and Ryder. Ryder ran to Mae, and she picked him up, but her attention was on her mother. “John Calvin won’t sell me his chicken.” Had refused to talk to her, actually. Had come to the door, shaken his head at her, closed it, and walked away. Mae was still shaking with fury. Who just locked the door in someone’s face, especially someone they’d known since they were kids? And then let her stand out there banging and calling?
They had a deal, a long-standing deal, that on Fridays and Wednesdays Mimi’s picked up fresh chicken if they needed it. Today’s order was supposed to be bigger than usual, and Mae had gone to pick it up so she could see the Caswell place again. The chicken might not be organic, but it was fresh and free-range and local, raised by the same family in the same way for generations, and that was a great story to tell.
Her mother took off her cooking apron and handed it to Andy. “I knew I should have gone over there. What the hell did you say, Mae?”
Mae glanced at Madison, who was looking deeply interested, and Barbara gave her a look that said “hell” didn’t count as swearing. Mae was too upset to argue. “Nothing! He wouldn’t even let me in the door. I swear, Mom, I never got close enough to talk to anyone. I wasn’t even taking pictures. I wasn’t doing anything.” She had thought about taking pictures, but it was dicey, live chickens in this context. People got upset.
“Come on.” Her mother walked over to the driver’s side of the truck, followed by Madison. “We’re going back over there.”
“He’s not going to talk to me, Mom. I tried.”
“He doesn’t have to talk to you. He has to talk to me. How could you screw this up? What do you imagine we’re going to do now, run over to Whole Foods?”
“I didn’t screw it up!” Mae put her hand on the truck’s hood, still hot, and watched Madison contemplate a vehicle with no back seat at all, let alone no car seats. Mae looked at Andy, feeling desperate.
“Can we leave them with you? Jessa should be here any minute.”
“I want to go too!” Madison opened the driver’s-side door. “Grandma, tell her I can go.”
Barbara started to slide out, and Mae knew instantly that she was planning to put Madison in the middle of the truck’s bench seat. Not happening. She swung Ryder down off her hip, getting some air to avoid his objections. Andy looked unsure, Madison rebellious. If there was going to be swearing, the kid wanted to be there.
Time for the big guns.
“The iPad’s in my bag,” she said to Madison. “If you’ll sit at the picnic table and wait for Jessa, you can watch a show with Ryder.” She lowered her voice. “You can pick,” she whispered. Ryder wouldn’t care, he’d be thrilled by the unexpected appearance of any show, but Madison would.
Madison crossed her arms and looked at the truck, then at her mother, considering. Mae applied