Harvey Dent was Bruce's best friend. He followed Bruce wherever he went, and since Bruce had been following Selina around since she moved to town, that meant with us. Looking back, though, Harvey probably had a bit of a crush on Pam too. And for some reason, that made me a little uncomfortable.

Harvey was nice enough, he was just…from a bad family. I'd told Pam that one time, and she'd replied, with one red eyebrow raised in questioning, "What constitutes a good family?"

I didn't have an answer. Firstly, because it was a complicated question. And Second, because 'constitutes' was a big word.

Jack Kerr had once told me he'd fuck me even though my mama was a 'kike'. So…maybe that meant I didn't have a good family neither. Because my mama didn't celebrate Christmas and wasn't born in this country.

Harvey's father had been a soldier in the second big war, that's why he'd gone crazy. But one time Harvey told me he'd gone to war to protect 'jews' like my mother, get as many as he could out of Germany and stop Hitler's reign of terror.

…my mother was from England, not Germany, and she'd come to America to go to school before my daddy messed everything up. But Harvey needed his father to be a specific kind of hero, the kind he wasn't at home. The kind he wasn't to Harvey. So I let him have that.

Anyway, I was worried Harvey only liked Pam to get her clothes off. Jack liked to try and steal her hat, so I figured maybe Harvey was just running a longer con. He just wanted to see her skin turn green. We all had a sort of morbid curiosity around it. None of us had ever seen it in person, just heard about it around town from rumors probably started by the town doctor. But I wasn't about to let some boy trick her into showing him. Even if that boy was also my friend.

I had a sort of…strange, relationship with Pam Isley. She was older than me and smarter than me and taller than me…but sometimes I'd just have the urge to hold her. Without warning I'd wrap my arms around her and squeeze, like I was worried something would go wrong. Like I was worried I'd some day have to let go. She never resisted me when I did this, in fact, sometimes she'd curl inward, rest her forehead on my shoulder and stay there until something interrupted us. I used to think that, maybe, I could be like a sponge for her. That if I held her close enough and maybe squeezed a little, I could absorb some of her sadness. Take a little bit away from her, even if it meant me being sad. It was worth it. Pam's shoulders were just so…heavy. I wanted to take a bit of that weight.

I'm not sure I ever succeeded, but I tried. Boy, did I try.

I glanced back over my shoulder at my friends. Harvey was flipping a coin from his pocket, forced to slow his pace when he let Pam take his place towards the middle of the pack. Bruce had both hands firmly on the straps of his pack, as his was much heavier than the rest of ours. Selina's expression was determined, but I could see some emotional fatigue starting to set in.

"Innnn…the big rock candy mountains, there's a land that's fair and bright," I sang. The others didn't join in right away, so I continued. "Where the handouts grow on bushes, and you sleep out every night."

Bruce caught on and sang the next bit with me, his voice more powerful than mine. "Where the boxcars are all empty, and the sun shines every day."

Harvey's accompaniment sounded a bit mumbled, but he was also keeping time with his coin, "On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees—,"

"And the soda water fountains," Selina joined in.

"The lemonade springs where the blue bird sings in the—come on, Pammy!" I encouraged.

"Big rock candy mountains," Pam finished. Actually singing, not just sort of yelling the words in a rhythm like the rest of us.

I whooped and hollered while Bruce lent a round of applause.

Selina laughed. "We should play stadiums."

"Harvey's got his coin." Bruce smiled back at his friend. "Now all we need's a harmonica."

"I can play the washboard!" I volunteered. "Do it all the time when Ma makes me do laundry."

Selina used her announcer voice, "And that day, history was made."

We all devolved into giggles. Well, we giggled, Pam let out a snort, but close enough.

"So why'd Kerr bring you all the way out here, Harl?" Harvey asked, changing the subject.

I didn't want to answer that.

"…it's an awfully long way…"

"What does that matter?" I snapped, not looking back. "I know where Isis is, who cares how?"

"I care," Pam's voice floated up towards me.

"Because, you know, there's a spot up here that people use for…uh…" Harvey didn't seem to want to finish his sentence. I didn't want him to either.

"You weren't really thinkin' about being with Jack Kerr, were you?" Selina said, like she wanted me to dash those rumors on the rocks.

I walked faster. "Not after he showed me what he showed me."

"What?" Bruce asked for clarification, I guess I wasn't talking loud enough.

"Not after he showed me what he showed me!" I stopped to yell, causing Selina to crash into me head-on.

"Ow."

I didn't really feel like making eye contact with anybody, but Pam's caught me, their green sparkling in the sunlight, and filled with something like pity. "Harley…you weren't really going to…give that to him, were you?"

A rage boiled up my throat, rage I didn't quite recognize. "Give what to him, Pamela?"

"You know…" Selina prompted.

"Your…uh…" Harvey attempted to clarify.

"Flower." Bruce summarized.

We all looked at him strangely.

"What?!" Bruce demanded.

Selina shook her head with lighthearted disapproval. "You're such a homo."

Pam prickled at the insult, but I didn't really care. I was mad at her for reasons I couldn't explain all that well.

"It's none of your business who I give my flower to, Red. It's my choice and you ain't my mother."

Pam seemed surprised by the anger in my tone. Rarely did I get angry at Pam. "Harley, Jack Kerr spits at me and calls me awful names. He also tortures helpless animals and you know it. How could you even entertain him in that way?"

"I didn't!" I shouted. "He showed me the fridge and I told him to drive me home! That's it!"

"Hey, hey, hey." Selina planted herself firmly between us. "You two need to cool off. Get some water, Quinzel. Get a grip."

I stared Pam down a moment longer, ignoring Selina, before finally shaking my head. "No." I turned around, starting again towards our destination. "We need to go. Isis in trouble."