“Unh-hunh,” I answered and felt his hand squeeze mine.
“Your Momma… does it –?” I stopped talking when his hand squeezed mine again and he answered, “Yeah. Lots.”
I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the words for me. I didn’t like them for him either.
I squeezed his hand back.
He kept walking me toward my house.
“You know where I live?” I asked.
“Everyone knows all about the Bissenettes,” he answered in a way that was kind of funny. A kind of funny that didn’t feel good.
I didn’t say anything.
We kept walking, Bootsie at my side and we did this a long time.
Then Tucker asked, “You go out when it happens?”
“Unh-hunh,” I repeated.
“He ever catch you?”
“Yeah,” I whispered and the word was shaky but his hand gave mine another squeeze so I knew he knew why my voice was shaky. That squeeze made me feel better.
I saw the fence that surrounded our backyard in front of me and Tucker was leading me to the gate.
He didn’t say anything more until we got there. I thought he’d stop and I’d just go in but he stopped and didn’t let me go. He tugged my hand in a gentle way, like when I tugged at Bootsie when I wanted to pet her and she wasn’t close enough to me.
I liked it.
I looked up as he turned into me.
“Next time you gotta get away, Sylvie, you come to me.”
My breathing felt funny.
“What?” I whispered.
“It gets bad, you gotta get away, you come to me. I’ll take care of you.”
I stared at him.
“What?” I whispered again.
“We’ll talk about the lake and cannonballs and how I’m gonna buy you orange sherbet push-ups from Merlin’s store when summer comes.”
Oh wow.
I loved orange sherbet push-ups. They were the best.
I had this feeling, deep, deep in my belly that Tucker buying them for me would make them better.
“I’ll freeze Snickers bars for you,” I promised.
“Sounds good. I like Doritos. Cool Ranch.”
“Okay. Ruffles for me. Doritos for you,” I planned.