Jeannette knew then though that the boys would not find out. She vowed never to speak the name of what her doctor had whispered to her mother.  The cough, dry whisper that knocked blood and teeth out of Jeannette’s mouth.  Her mother’s stiff legs took another permanent vacation in the bathtub with an old bottle of gin that demanded arrogance as its reward.  Jeannette and Anne were forced to eke out their living outdoors—Their mother’s philosophy was if it must be sold, then it must be sold with indifference.

            The sunlight stiffly cracked the wilted geraniums that Samson trampled on as a perpetual scowl tightened the forehead under his flat, hard eyes.  The girls had not returned from behind the garage, and Jeannette had his necklace in her pocket. In his knapsack, the ugliest dog that he had even seen, with fat jowls and snap-red eyes, was eating his lunch of hamburger patties and buttered biscuits that he had brought with him.  “Hey!” he yelled as he took a broken twig and threw it in the direction of the dog. Half-sneers erupted from Samson and Antonio as the dog yelped, and looked in the direction of Robinson.

            Anne and Jeannette came from back behind the garage.  They quickened their pace as they heard the dog yelping and Robinson calling them. In spite of their worries, the dog was still alive; its paws were covered in a puddle of urine.  The girls, following along, allowed themselves the mutual enjoyment of the unexpected. A brick wall separated them from Robinson’s cries; his arms were scarred with welt marks from the twigs that Samson and Antonio were beating him with.  A rattle disguised as death frightened Anne’s senses of right and wrong. She knew that Robinson, along with them, was losing the battle.  No one had ever taught them to fight back.

            “Stop doing that.  You’re hurting him,” Jeannette cried and Anne wondered if her sister was talking about the dog or Robinson. Shuddering, Robinson shook little black specks of dirt off himself as he stood up. The boys were laughing and chasing the dog with sticks; Jeannette stared at him intensely sucking the end nail of her left thumb.