I smoothed it out on the wooden coffee table, right next to the glowing laptop.

Two hundred dollars cash deposit for Madison’s hair, nails and makeup.

Three hundred dollars balance due the morning of April fourteenth.

A six-hundred-dollar dress order printed in small type near the edge of the receipt, under the same salon heading.

The whole story lay right there on the table in black ink on cheap yellow paper.

He wasn’t struggling.

He wasn’t waiting on late checks from welding contractors in Sioux City.

He was deciding where the money went, one dollar at a time, one girl at a time.