answer. She continued to look at him. Her expression was difficult to read.
“I’m Veronica’s mother,” she said finally. “That was actually me you just spoke with on the phone.”
Silence. I listened to the rain, my fingers tight around the diagonal strap of my seat belt. But I felt something close to hope. My mother was very nice, and she usually brought out niceness in others. Also, there was just the fact that she was older. He might act differently around her.
Jimmy’s knees moved again. “Enchanted, I’m sure. Why are we just sitting here? And Jesus, what the fuck stinks?”
I thought she would make him get out. Once, when Elise and I were young and nagging her from the backseat about something, she’d made us get out and walk. I’ve had it! she’d yelled. I’ve had it with the whining! Both of you, get out! Get out now! We hadn’t been far from home, less than a mile, I think; but still, when she pulled over and told us to get out of the van, we hadn’t really believed she would do it until we were standing together on the sidewalk, watching the back of the van as she drove away.
But she didn’t make Jimmy and Haylie get out. She only turned around and put the van in gear. “Buckle up,” she said cheerily. The childproof locks clicked in unison, and we glided away from the curb.
“So, Haylie, how’s your mom doing?” My mother glanced briefly over her shoulder.
There was, of course, no answer from the back. I assumed my mother was not trying to be mean. She’d really just forgotten about Haylie’s name change. I turned back a little, just enough to see Haylie’s face. She wore bright red lipstick that set off her pale cheeks and matched her raincoat. But she was shivering, staring out the window, her arms crossed tight over her chest.
“Who the fuck is Haylie?” Jimmy asked.
She glanced at him, and then at me, and then out the window again. It should have been satisfying, maybe; but the look on her face was so miserable that I only felt embarrassed for seeing it.
“Haylie?” My mother tilted the rearview mirror toward her. “I’m sorry. Did you hear me? I asked how your mom was doing?”
I looked at my mother and shook my head. “It’s Simone,” I said. “She goes by Simone now.”
“Oh. That’s right. Sorry. Simone? What’s your mom up to these days? I haven’t talked to her since…” She glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes slightly lowered. “Since she moved. I’ve been wondering about her. And your little brother. What is he, fourteen now? Where’s he going to school?”
“They’re fine,” Haylie said. Her teeth were chattering.
My mother waited.
Haylie cleared her throat. “He’s in Oregon,” she said. “He’s staying with my aunt.”
My mother asked no more questions. She must have understood, as I did, that Haylie’s little brother living with relatives implied that Haylie’s mother was probably not fine at all. It was just five or so years earlier that Haylie’s brother, dressed like a robot, had come to our door for Halloween candy. Haylie’s father, pre–embezzlement charge, had stood out on the sidewalk with a video camera. Neither of them could have known, as Haylie and her mother could not have known, how much everything would soon change for them all.
“Again.” Jimmy sounded tired, put upon. “Who the fuck is Haylie?”
“Excuse me,” my mother said, glancing back at him. “You’re going to have to watch your language.”
I held my breath. If he got angry enough, trapped in the backseat with the childproof locks and nowhere to go, it seemed likely that I would be the one he lashed out at. He could, theoretically, reach over the seat and thump me on the head, or yank up hard on my seat belt. I wondered if she had considered any of this.
“Thanks for the lesson, Mrs. Old Person. But if I were you, I’d be a little more worried about my selfish bitch of daughter not having respect for other people’s things.”
We stopped at a light. My mother turned back to look at him again.
“Here,” she said quietly, using both hands to lift Bowzer over the gears and into my lap. Maybe she was just tired of driving with the weight on her arm. But I imagined Jimmy was staring hard back at her, and she wanted the dog out of his view.
The light changed. Bowzer fell into me when we rolled forward. I put both arms