“I’ve known this family thirty-one years, and I don’t bill friends by the hour, but I don’t carry their costs either.”

I wrote the check from my own savings and tore it along the perforation.

The carbon went into my black ledger, third page from the back, under the lawn figures and the twenty-four dollars for the mower belt.

David watched me write and said nothing, which was its own answer.

At the door Carl put his hand flat against the frame.

“Tell your mother I left something for her Tuesday.