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back.
    “We brought you something.” She opened the pack and pulled out three lovely sandwiches wrapped in wax paper, three apples, and, my goodness me, three ice-cold Coca-Colas. At the same time, Ruthanne saw me clutching the letters.
    “What are you hiding?” She snatched them out of my hand.
    “Give them back,” I said.
    “Are these letters from your boyfriend?”
    My pride welled up like a blister ready to pop. I grabbed the letters. “I know why you’re here. Y’all are the ones hoping to get noticed by the teacher or your parents for doing a good deed to the new girl. Well, I don’t need no corpus works of mercy,” I said, slipping into my new-girl-in-town way of talking. “So y’all can just find someone else to get your extra credit from this summer.”
    Seeing the looks on their faces, I almost busted out crying to be so mean.
    They looked at each other as if silently agreeing which one would speak to me.
    “That’s just fine.” It was Ruthanne. “But I’d like to point out that they’re the
corporal
works of mercy. You know, doing things like clothe the naked and feed the hungry. And we weren’t doing them in the first place. But I think even Sister Redempta would agree there isn’t one among them says anything about sitting in a tree house with the pigheaded. Isn’t that right, Lettie?”
    “That’s right.” Lettie was quietly putting the food and drinks back into the bandana.
    “Nor one about running all over town collecting empty pop bottles for trading in to bring Coca-Colas to the ungrateful. We came up here to pay a visit and get acquainted. But it looks like you’ve got your own self to keep you company. Or y’all self or whatever it is you keep saying. Come on, Lettie. Let’s go.”
    They both stood.
    I wasn’t sure what to say but knew it had better be something good and quick.
    “You mean y’all don’t say ‘y’all’?”
    They paused; then Ruthanne answered, sounding kind ofdisgusted. “No, we all don’t say ‘y’all.’ That’s two words. ‘You all.’ You might as well get that straight right now.”
    I cleared some dust off the floor with my foot. “Anything else I need to know? For while I’m here, that is?”
    Lettie and Ruthanne looked at each other again, probably deciding if they could tolerate me another minute. They must’ve figured they could, because they sat back down and opened their parcel of sandwiches.
    “Well,” Lettie said while Ruthanne popped the bottle tops off with the hammer claw, “there’s a river that when it’s in Arkansas, you can say it like that. The
Ar-kan-saw
River. But once it hits Kansas, it’s called the Ar-
kansas
River. That’s kind of important.”
    “And there’s a woman up the way who sits on her porch and stares. Don’t let her look you in the eye or you’ll turn to stone,” Lettie said, as if that was on the same level of importance as how to pronounce
Arkansas
.
    “And you might want to work on your grammar,” Ruthanne added with a mouthful of egg salad sandwich. “It doesn’t bother us any. Fact is, during the summer we all talk however we want. But come fall, Sister Redempta’s kinda picky when it comes to ‘don’t need nos’ and ‘might couldas.’ And as for that
lasso
around her waist, it’s not a lasso. It’s a rosary and it’s for praying on.”
    I could tell it would take a while to learn the lay of the land. But that was okay. Those girls were real friendly, the Coca-Cola was going down good, and come fall I’d be long gone, I told myself, pushing aside the wobbly feeling I’d been having off and on.
    I opened the cigar box. “You ever seen a spy map?” I asked.

Main Street, Manifest
MAY 28, 1936
    “A n honest-to-goodness spy!” cried Lettie as the three of us crouched behind the wooden Indian in front of the hardware store. “Right here in Manifest! Why, I’ve never heard anything so exciting.”
    I kept the mementos hidden away in the cigar box, but showed them the first