The quarters notice, folded in quarters, its last day landing on the fourteenth, square on the board date.

Vance’s card came out of my inside pocket, soft at one corner from the heat.

I turned it over twice.

A number ran along the back in blue ink, small and careful.

The fridge hummed.

Somebody had left the radio on in the front room.

I thought about four hundred twelve dollars, and a family I had never met asking twice about a school bus, and a hearing in September with a lawyer I could not afford.

Then I picked up the phone and dialed the number on the back of the card.