Harold said, “In a town this size I have to protect my own stock.”

He was right.

I have never held it against him and I told him so, eighteen years later, in the April of 2025, in his back room, and he cried, which I had not been prepared for.

What he said then was: “I’ve had that in my chest since 2007, Roland.”

And I said, “You gave me diapers in the June.”

And Harold Beem said: “I gave you diapers in the June and I cut your credit in the January, and the second one is the one I remember.”