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"I'll be all right," I said. "I can get home myself. My mother's at work."

Nevertheless, she tried phoning, which was a big mistake. Ken answered and when she told him what was wrong, he said, "What can I do about it. I ain't no doctor."

She was so shocked, she had to repeat what he'd said to her.

"He lost his job," I explained, "so he's very depressed."

"Parents," she muttered and wrote the release note.

When I got home, Ken was already gone. I was grateful for that. I took a quick, hot shower and crawled under the covers. Roy had found out that I had left school sick and instead of going to work at Slim's right away, he came home to look in on me. Beni had gotten detention, just as she expected, and wouldn't be back for another hour and a half. I was already in bed when Roy entered the apartment. I was surprised to see him.

"What's wrong? Why did the nurse send you home?" he asked, his eyes full of concern. I wondered how much he already knew.

"I just had this terrible headache, Roy."

If he found out what those girls had done, he'd go after them, and the situation would continue to fester like a bad sore. Right now, I dreaded the thought of going back to school.

"You sick?"

"I'll be fine," I said.

"Beth's in detention," he muttered. "Late for class. She wouldn't tell me why. I bet she was smoking in the girls room:'

"She doesn't smoke, Roy," I said.

"Sure," he said, twisting his mouth. "She's a little angel."

"You have to stop riding her so much, Roy. She feels picked on."

"She needs to be."

"She needs to feel loved and wanted, Roy. You can't just see the bad things or she'll believe there aren't any good. And she really isn't a bad person, Roy. It's not easy for anybody in this family," I added.

He laughed.

"I swear you'd see the good in the devil if he stopped by for a beer with Ken," he quipped. I laughed.

"I bet he has."

"That's better. I like it when you smile and hate it when you're unhappy, Rain."

We stared at each other, his eyes holding onto me so firmly, I felt my heart skip a beat.

"Shouldn't you be at work, Roy?" I asked softly.

"I'll just stay an extra half hour or so. Slim's cool about it long as the work's done." He came farther into the room and sat on the bed at my feet.

"I don't recall you ever leaving school, Rain. Even when you had that bad cold, you stayed and sniffled and coughed until that teacher asked you to stay home rather than make him sick, too. What's his name, Ketchum, something like that."

"Mr. Kitsman," I said smiling.

"Yeah. Must be some helluva headache," he said looking harder at me, drinking in my face with scrutiny. "I bet it's because of all this craziness around the house, huh?"

"Yes," I said.

"Well, maybe something good will come from it." He looked down and then he moved his hand toward me and put his large palm over mine.

"Roy," I said just over a whisper.