Having Merle back changed everyone. My kids didn't play with the other kids anymore, I didn't talk to others much, either. I, myself, was much too busy expressing to Merle how happy I was to have him back, and it turns out, he missed me a little too.

"Ya made me think ya'll were dead." He confided in me in bed one night. Mary and Chris were fast asleep, they had been for hours. He thought I was sleeping too, but he caught me watching him think again.

"I didn't mean to," I take my palm, and put it on his cheek. He's warm, probably burning up. He's always warm, he spends too much time in the sun. Listen to me, I sound like his mother. "It wasn't safe, and you left without telling me when you'd be back. I had to go."

He nods slightly, and looks up, he's thinking again. I wrap myself around his body, and it's instantly too warm; so I sit up and start to strip.