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part of Galilee the country. Not like Galilee’s that big, but where we are is still far away from everything.
    Cheering?
I asked.
Like a cheerleader?
    Kaylee nodded.
There’s tryouts at the end of the month—for next season. I bet you’d make the team easy.
    You think?
    Kaylee smiled.
Yeah. All you need is a big mouth—the routines come easy.
    This big enough?
I opened my mouth wide, and Kaylee laughed.
    Looks big enough to me. Least big as mine.
    Good. Then I guess I’ll be trying out.
    After that, we just sat there smiling, staring out at nothing. Galilee’s a quiet town—just farms out by us. In town, there’s just a Walmart, a Payless, a Dollar Store, and the supermarket. Once you pass those, you’re not in Galilee anymore, and the road you’re on turns into highway, taking you west toward Colorado and Wyoming and east toward Illinois and Ohio. Me and Kaylee watched a car drive down the street, listened to the sound of a train whistle blowing far off.
    I’m not staying out here in the country past high school,
Kaylee said
.
You can come with me if you want. Maybe California. Or Texas. Someplace big and far away.
She looked at me.
If we end up being friends, I mean.
    M’lady used to ask me,
Who will stand beside you with the Lord?
For a long time I didn’t know what she was talking about, and I used to say,
Angels.
    Of course angels. But who else? Who will stand beside you, Laurel?
    The last time she asked, we were sitting on a bench by the water. The sun was dark red, and no wind was blowing. Late afternoon, and soon Mama would cash out her drawer at the Dollar Store, pull off her apron, rub her growing belly and punch the clock. Then she’d say good-bye to those staying for the late shift and head down to the water to meet us. The three of us would sit for a while, sharing the candy bars Mama’d brought us, making dinner plans and watching the fishing boats come in and go out. These were our days in the Pass—slow that way and unsurprising.
    And while we waited for Mama to come, me and M’lady talked. And talked.
    While you’re living,
M’lady said.
It’s the Rocks in your life that will stand beside you. Your words, your friends. Your family.
    How many Rocks does a person get, M’lady?
    M’lady put her hand on my thigh and smiled out at the water, her hair a long blue braid down her back.
    If you’re lucky,
she said,
you get as many as you need.
    As me and Kaylee sat there, letting the chocolate melt in our mouths and staring out at nothing, I let the thoughts of M’lady move over me, slow and calming as a breeze. It’d been a long time since I’d felt anything but sadness when I thought of her, and sitting there with the sun coming down, with Kaylee all new and promising beside me, I felt like M’lady was right close somewhere, taking every little bit in . . . and smiling.
    Texas,
I said to Kaylee.
I bet we’d like it there.

t-boom
    I MADE THE SQUAD EASILY. Maybe because I’d spent the two years before in Aunt G.’s yard, doing cartwheels and back bends, walk overs and round-offs. Some mornings, Aunt G. came outside to find me hanging from my cousins’ jungle gym—just hanging there, my mind miles and miles away.
Oh, my stars, Laurel,
she’d say.
We need to get you into some gymnastics.
But it didn’t happen. We were always leaving Jackson but never gone from there. Jobs turned up for Daddy in other places. Then they fell through. Friends promised work on fishing boats, then there wasn’t work. Again and again, the hope rising, then falling. Rising and falling so that our small bags remained half packed, our toiletries remained travel size. Me and Jesse Jr. outgrew our clothes—he got my cousins’ old stuff, I picked out things from the Salvation Army. And the days passed with me twirling around Aunt G.’s yard, maybe thinking if I hung long enough, spun