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to Walton Lake Road when Rachel spoke again. “I don’t know how to swim.”
    â€œDon’t worry about that,” Zac said. “I’ll teach you.”
    Rachel passed the coffee can to Amelia as soon as she walked into the kitchen. Amelia stood up, wiped her wet hands on a towel, and set it on top of the fridge.
    â€œI’ll get you to count it after you eat lunch. How did it go? I suppose Zac found lots of people to gab with and left all the work to you. He does like to take someone with him so he can make the rounds. We’ve already eaten. There’s some corn on the cob in the pot on the stove, but before you sit down go holler to Zac to come have some, too. We’ve been cutting up mustard pickles all morning. You can ask Raymond what he was crying about. He chopped the onions. I’m just finishing up the cucumbers and then we’ll be done. I’ll stop talking and let you go get Zac.”
    Rachel cleared off the kitchen table and washed the dishes she and Zac had used. Zac had left in a hurry, remembering he had to get home and put the meat he’d bought into the freezer. Amelia had covered the ingredients for the pickles and set them on the counter in the pantry. She was now drinking tea from her pansy cup. The other kids were sitting at the table waiting for their money. Amelia passed the can to Rachel and asked her to count it and divide it up.
    Rachel already knew exactly the amount, but carefully counted it out loud, separating the bills and the change right down to the pennies. She began reciting the amounts for each of the things they sold.
    â€œWe sold all the raspberries and that was $77.50. We made $20 from the yellow beans. The eggs sold almost as soon as we got there and that gave us $18.00. That gives us $115.50. There was $5.00 in change to begin with, so the total is $120.50.”
    Rachel began scooping up the money to put back in the can, but Amelia stopped her, saying, “You can take your money and give the kids what they get. Give Zac $20.00 for gas when he gets back. You may have to hide it in his glove box. He always refuses to take it, but if he finds it later he keeps it. He needs money as much as the rest of us.”
    Rachel kind of liked the sound of being included in that us. She also liked how it felt to be trusted. Being trusted was not something she was used to. She counted out the $9.00 for Raymond and passed it to him. She gave the twins each $10.00. She set aside a $20 bill for Zac and then counted out $31.00 for herself. She put the rest of the money back in the can and passed it across the table to Amelia.
    â€œI don’t deserve the $31.00,” Rachel said. “I only picked two boxes yesterday.” She held out the money in her hand.
    â€œBut you did your part,” Amelia answered. “That’s what we do around here. And when we all do our part, we all share in the rewards. Now why don’t you take your money upstairs and get your bathing suit on? Zac will be back in a couple of minutes and it’s a perfect afternoon for a swim. I’m going to pick some raspberries while you all go to the lake. You can help me when you come back up, if you like.”
    Amelia grabbed a straw hat off a peg by the back door and headed outside.
    When Rachel got to the lake, the dogs, the kids, and Zac were already in the water. She’d put shorts and a T-shirt on, as the only bathing suit in her stuff was way too small. She couldn’t even remember for sure if it had been hers. It might have belonged to one of the other kids at the Harriets’ and been put in her dresser by mistake. Raymond was wearing shorts and a huge T-shirt that was literally ballooning out around him as he waded out past his waist. The twins were already swimming and Rachel was pretty sure they would be wearing matching bathing suits.
    Zac saw Rachel walking down the path and walked up to meet her. “The first thing you need to do is get wet.