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“We can’t tell the police or let your father know about this. Sam Johnson is head of the Coastline Shops. He would fire Red if we accuse Tank. The police won’t do anything. It would just be your word against his,” Alice argued aloud with herself. She pulled Ann up by her shoulders, looked straight into her tear-swollen eyes, and spoke deliberately. “Listen to me. We can’t tell anybody about this. It’s got to be our secret. You’re strong. I know you can do it. Tank will graduate in the spring and be out of our lives for good. You just have to go to school and act like nothing happened, you hear me? Just like nothing happened.”
    Alice turned away and grabbed her side in pain, trying to hide it from Ann. She stood up and calmly walked toward the door. “Go in the bathroom and get yourself cleaned up before your father gets home,” she said and left the room as if nothing had happened.
    Dazed by her mother’s inability to deal with her trauma, Ann locked herself in their freezing cold bathroom. She ran nothing but hot water until steam filled the room. Her skin glowed bright red from heavy scrubbing, but she couldn’t wash away the feeling of Tank’s sweaty body pressed against her. Gone was the warm feeling inside she always had when she thought about this being the same tub Rick had taken long soaking baths in. Her fantasy of them sneaking in after everyone was asleep to make love in this bathtub had been brutally shattered.
    “You gonna be in there all night?” Red shouted from outside the bathroom door. “I got a ton of grime to wash off before supper.” Red’s pounding on the door shocked Ann back to reality. She had to resume her life as if nothing had happened to avoid Rick’s suspicions. How was she going to live with the lie?
    “I’ll be out in a minute, Daddy. Sorry to take so long,” Ann answered. Her body shook as if the scalding water had turned to ice. She quickly pulled on her bathrobe.
    She avoided her father’s eyes when she entered their apartment through the kitchen door and stood next to the old cook stove to warm herself.
    “It looks like our little girl is all grown up, Momma,” Red said. He ogled Ann’s figure through her threadbare bathrobe, for the first time sober enough to recognize her transformation into a young woman. “No wonder that Barnes boy is always sniffing around like a hound dog.” He stood and went to the door. “You better have saved me some hot water.”
    “You go on,” Alice whispered after Red had gone into the bathroom. “I’ll tell your daddy you aren’t feeling well and went to bed early without supper. Go on now, do your homework and go to bed.”
    After supper, Red followed his routine of drinking a bottle of cheap Wild Turkey bourbon and was snoring on the couch before Alice had cleaned up supper dishes.
    Alice snuck into the girl’s bedroom to check on Ann. She’d fixed a sandwich and a glass of milk. Jo Lee was busy doing homework at a desk the girls shared.
    Quickly, before Alice could speak, Ann asked, “Momma, do you think Daddy would sign papers for me to apply to Cannon College?”
    Alice’s eyes narrowed. She spoke through clinched teeth. “And just how do you think we can afford that, young lady?”
    “I can get a scholarship. Mrs. Tichenor, my English teacher, said my grades were good enough and she would write a letter of recommendation for me.”
    “So you think you can just run off to college and leave Jo Lee and me here? I need you here to help me. I can’t handle your daddy anymore, and I don’t want him going after Jo Lee when he gets drunk.”
    Jo Lee didn’t look up from her homework, but Ann could tell she was listening carefully to every word. Alice shrugged. “If he says he’ll sign it, then I guess you can go if you get that scholarship,” she said knowing full well Red would never sign for her to go to college.
    “Thank you, Momma. Do I have to go to school tomorrow? I’m really tired and just want to