When they park at the motel, Billy reaches into his back pocket and brings out a folded piece of paper. He unfolds it, smooths it gently, and then attaches it to the dashboard with Scotch tape from Target. Alice looks at the little girl hugging the pink flamingo.
‘Who is that?’
Shanice’s careful crayon work has blurred a little, but the hearts rising from the flamingo’s noddy head to Shanice’s are still clear enough. Billy touches one of them. ‘The little girl who lived next door to me in Midwood. But tomorrow she’s going to be my daughter. If I need her to be.’
10
Billy trusts people not to steal, but only so far. The old tools and dirty barrels are safe enough, but someone might see the stuff they bought at Grow Baby Grow and decide to filch some, so they carry the bags inside and store them in Billy’s bathroom. There are four 50-pound sacks of Miracle-Gro potting soil, five 10-pound sacks of Buckaroo Worm Castings, and a 25-pound sack of Black Kow fertilizer.
Alice lets Billy tote the Black Kow. She wrinkles her nose and says she can smell it even through the bag.
They watch TV in her room and she asks him if he will stay the night with her. Billy says it would be better if he didn’t.
‘I don’t think I can sleep alone,’ Alice says.
‘I don’t think I can, either, but we’re both going to try. Come here. Give me a hug.’
She gives him a good one. He can feel her trembling, not because she’s afraid of him but because she’s afraid for him. She doesn’t deserve to be afraid at all, but if she has to be, Billy thinks, this way is better. A lot.
‘Set your phone alarm for six,’ he says when he lets her go.
‘I won’t have to.’
He smiles. ‘Do it anyway. You might surprise yourself.’
In his room next door, he texts Bucky: Have you heard anything about N?
Bucky’s reply is immediate. No. He’s probably there but I don’t know for sure. Sorry.
It’s okay, Billy texts back, then sets his own phone alarm for five. He doesn’t expect to sleep, either, but he might surprise himself.
He does, a little, and dreams of Shanice. She’s tearing up the picture of Dave the Flamingo and saying I hate you I hate you I hate you.
He wakes up at four, and when he goes outside with the new gloves in one hand, Alice is sitting in the eternal motel lawn chair, bundled up in an I LOVE LAS VEGAS sweatshirt and looking up at a rind of moon.
‘Hey,’ Billy says.
‘Hey.’
He goes to the edge of the cement walk and scrubs the new gloves in the dirt. When he’s satisfied that they look right, he claps the dust off them and stands up.
‘Cold,’ Alice says. ‘That will be good for you. You can wear the coat.’
Billy knows it will warm up fast once the sun rises. It may be October, but this is the desert. He’ll wear the barn coat anyway.
‘You want something to eat? Egg McMuffin? The Mickey D’s down the road is twenty-four-hour.’
She shakes her head. ‘Not hungry.’
‘Coffee?’
‘Sure, that would be great.’
‘Cream and sugar?’
‘Black, please.’
He goes down to the deserted lobby and gets them each a cup from the eternal motel Bunn. When he comes back, she’s still looking at the moon. ‘It looks close enough to reach out and touch. Isn’t it beautiful?’
‘It is, but you’re shivering. Let’s go inside.’
She sits in his chair by the window and sips her coffee, then sets it on the little table and falls asleep. The sweatshirt is too big and the neck slips to the side, baring one shoulder. Billy thinks it’s at least as beautiful as the moon. He sits and drinks his coffee and watches her. He likes her long slow breaths. The time passes. It’s got a knack for that, Billy thinks.
11
When he wakes her up at seven-thirty she scolds him for letting her sleep. ‘We need to get you sprayed up. That goo takes at least four hours to work.’
‘It’s okay. The game starts at one and I’m not going to move on him until at least one-thirty.’
‘Still, I wish we’d done this an hour ago, just to be safe.’ She sighs. ‘Come in my room. We’ll do it there.’
A few minutes later his shirt is off and he’s rubbing moisturizer over his hands, forearms, and face. She tells him not to neglect his eyelids and the back of his neck. When he’s done, she goes to work with the tanning spray. The first coat takes five minutes. When she’s done, he goes into the bathroom and takes a look. What he sees is a white man with a desert tan.