As soon as he was on his way to the vending machines, LaReigne said, “I don’t see why he can’t give me a hug when I haven’t seen him in so long.”

“Do you have amnesia?” I said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Do you not remember how hard this was when we were kids? Because I remember being terrified, and you’re acting like he’s supposed to be thrilled to see you.” I was trying not to lose my temper with her, but she wasn’t helping me.

“And what’s this nonsense about Sir Gentry’s dog? Isn’t Gentry in prison?”

“Marcus knows Gentry’s in prison. Just like his mommy and daddy.”

“If it weren’t for me, his Aunt Zee would be, too,” LaReigne said.

“Yeah, and I’m the only one who’s ever going to bring Marcus to see you, so stop wasting your breath threatening me.”

For a minute, we looked at each other, and then LaReigne blinked and smiled like everything was fine. I’d seen her swallow her feelings like that a hundred times with Loudon. I didn’t know what to think about her doing it with me.

“I was starting to think you were never bringing him to see me. Mom says you’ve had visitation for three months.”

“Did she tell you I only get him every other weekend?” I said.

“That’s six times he could have come to see me.” She was still smiling, but it was fake.

“I tried to bring him two weekends ago, but he cried so much I felt like shit, so I didn’t make him come inside. He cried this time, too. Seriously, do you not remember that?”

“I was older than you,” LaReigne said.

“He’s almost the same age I was.”

“How’s money? I know Mom’s phone bill is a lot, but it’s hard to get her off the phone once she gets started.”

Like that was all on Mom. She only accepted the charges when LaReigne called. I was trying to think of a way to suggest maybe she didn’t need to call Mom so often, when Marcus came back to the table with three cans of pop hugged against his chest. A can of orange, a can of Coke for me, and a can of Diet Coke. That was what LaReigne always drank. When he slid it across the table to her, she didn’t even thank him. If it wasn’t some grand gesture, she didn’t know what love looked like.

“Thanks, buddy,” I said. Even though I didn’t really want the Coke, I opened it and took a drink.

“Is it time yet?” He put his knee on the bench next to me, but didn’t sit down.

“Time for what?” LaReigne said.

“We’re going to the zoo. To see rain forest bats,” he said.

“Here in a minute,” I said.

“You’re going already? I get two hours for visitation and you’ve only been here fifteen minutes.”

“We’ll stay longer next time.” I meant we’d try to stay longer next time. LaReigne gave me her sad, disappointed face, but I pushed myself up to standing and took another drink of my Coke. Then I put my hand on Marcus’ shoulder and squeezed it. “Do you think you can give your mom a goodbye hug?”

I did it first, to show him it wasn’t a big deal. When I let go of her, Marcus was hanging back at the table, but after a minute, he nodded. Still holding on to his pop, he took a couple steps closer and let LaReigne hug him. After maybe twenty seconds, he pulled away from her.

“I’ll see you Saturday after next.” She was trying not to cry.

“Probably not,” I said.

“What do you mean probably not?”

“I don’t think we’ll come on our next weekend.”

“Why the hell not?” Supposedly I was the one with the bad temper, but there was a flash of LaReigne’s.

“Because it’s not fair to him. Or me,” I said. “It’s four hours of driving on the only full day we get to spend together.”

“And Leon is cooped up at home while we’re gone,” Marcus said.

“And what about me?” LaReigne said.

“You’ll be okay.” Marcus shrugged.

It was a crappy note to leave on, but I felt like I’d gotten lucky, because she didn’t get a chance to ask me about giving Tague her letter. I hadn’t decided if I was going to tell her the truth.

When we got back to the car, Marcus looked relieved. I gave him my phone to find directions to the zoo.

“When are we going to visit Sir Gentry?” he said. I was glad he was focused on my phone, so he wouldn’t see me looking T-boned.

“Well, you can’t.”

“Why not?”

“You have to be a relative or you have to be eighteen. And you’re not either one.”

“Oh. Will you tell him I say hi when you go visit him? And tell him I’m helping you take care of Leon. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

CHAPTER 61

Zee

   I got there early, like the Arkansas DOC website said to, and went through all the checks. My car, my purse, me. They even swabbed my hands for drugs, so I was glad I’d quit smoking weed and was only taking drops for my hip. The system at Malvern was a lot more thorough than at Topeka, and different from when I was a kid. When I was little, the visitation area at El Dorado was a long counter with partitions and glass, to keep prisoners and visitors from touching. I remembered how Mom and Dad would put their hands up on either side of the glass, like they could somehow feel each other through it.

The visitors’ room at Malvern was full of square metal picnic tables, with a mesh bench seat on each side. As soon as I was cleared, I filed into the room with everybody else, and found my assigned table.

I was there for five minutes, watching inmates come in and hug their families, before Gentry came through the door with a man in a sport coat. They stood at the doorway for a few minutes, the man in the sport coat looking at me and talking to Gentry, who was looking down at the floor. Finally they walked over to my table and Gentry sat down.

For some stupid reason I’d thought he would look the same, but his hair was cut down to his scalp. Either they were making him get a buzz cut or he was doing that himself with a razor, but he looked like a skinhead. Someone had broken his nose, long enough ago it was healed, but not quite straight. I’d expected him to look smaller, the way LaReigne did, the way my father had, but if anything Gentry was bigger than I remembered. The muscles on the tops of his shoulders bulged so that he almost didn’t have a neck, and the arms of his jumpsuit were stretched tight. He was pale, though, almost as white as me. I didn’t imagine they let him sleep outside.