By morning my arm was in a sling, and the tools at Mercer's yard were the only things I owned that might still earn money. I asked Leon to take me there. He stood beside the hospital discharge desk, rubbing a thumb over the dent in his hat. 'You just got out of his reach.' 'My tools didn't.' The woman who handed me my papers told me not to lift with that arm and to arrange further care. I folded her instructions into my pocket.
Daniel had gone with Ada after she arrived before daylight. She had looked at my sling, touched her son's cheek, and asked Leon where they could wait for a hired car. I had given her money without making another promise. Ruth remained for examination and rest. Before leaving, I told her I would return to help arrange somewhere to stay. She asked whether Mercer knew that. 'He'll know soon enough,' I said. She studied me, then said she would wait there.
The ride to the yard passed in full daylight. Men were opening shops. A boy swept water from a grocery doorway into the gutter. After the night's rooms and fences, the ordinary movement made me feel exposed. Leon parked outside Mercer's gate rather than drive in. 'We go together,' he said. I nodded. He had brought both captives out as agreed. This visit was beyond his bargain, and neither of us pretended otherwise. I got out slowly and straightened my coat over the sling.
My old canvas apron lay beneath the office awning, tied in a roll. My work bag was still in the pickup where I'd had to leave it. Beside the apron stood a wooden toolbox, its lid fastened with the strap I had used for years. I could see the scar across the handle from a dropped engine part. Mercer came onto the office step before I reached it. There was a scrape on his cheek. He looked at Leon, then at me. 'You bringing company for every errand now?' 'I've come for my things.'
He let me take the apron. Folded inside were the spare sleeves I'd worn in the cold store and a tin of buttons off old work coats. When I reached toward the toolbox, he put his shoe on the lid. 'Those stay.' I stared at his shoe. 'I bought them.' 'You used my shop.' Leon moved beside me, but I lifted my good hand to stop him. Starting another fight here would not put a wrench in my hand. I could scarcely button a shirt without help.
Mercer took his foot off the box and bent to lift it onto the office step. He made a show of how easily it came up. 'There's paid work if you want it. Desk work until that heals.' For a moment I saw the chair inside, the fan turning over familiar invoices, the coffee pot nobody cleaned properly. I had spent years complaining about that room and depending on it. 'What work?' I asked. His eyes moved toward Leon. 'You stop carrying Ruth Bell around. Let her make her own arrangements.'
'She hasn't got any arrangements.' 'She can find them. She's a grown woman.' He waited while a truck went by on the road. I could hear loose metal rattling in its bed. He was offering me wages to make myself unavailable, to leave Ruth alone with whatever came next. I did not know what he intended. I knew what he had already been willing to do. 'No,' I said. Mercer rested a hand on the toolbox. 'Then there's nothing for you here.'
I left the box on his step. Walking away hurt in a different place than my shoulder. There were tools inside that had belonged to nobody but me, bought one at a time when I could afford them. Leon waited until we reached the gate before offering to carry the bundle under my good arm. I let him. Then I took the crew keys from my pocket and laid them in his palm. 'Put them on the step. I'm finished going back.' He looked at me once and returned them.
Ada was waiting at her relative's house when Leon brought me there. She had collected the clothes I kept in a closet at her place, things left from better visits. They were packed in an old suitcase beside the porch. Daniel was inside; I could hear his voice but not his words. 'He needs sleep,' she said. I nodded. She looked toward Leon's car, then at my empty good hand. 'Did you get what you went for?' 'Some of it.'
She did not ask which part was missing. Leon set my apron bundle by the suitcase and went back to give us room. I told Ada I would help Ruth leave town when she was able. 'See that you do,' she said. There was no forgiveness in it, but no request that I disappear either. I bent and closed my good hand around the suitcase handle. Its weight pulled me sideways. With one usable arm, I could not lift the suitcase Ada had packed for me.