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here, no dice. Even some gold mining.” He winked. “Place spent some time as a bordello, but too far to drive. The last owners were the spoiled-brat heirs of a railroad man whose timing stank, he thought he’d lay track, meanwhile the automakers and the tire manufacturers are bribing everyone to rip up track. Construction begins soon as I’m finished with Carciofi and his piece of garbage, Diablo my ass.”
    For the rest of the drive, he smiled and sang along with the radio, laughed as the Deuces Wild sign with its trespassing warnings came into view.
    “Screw you, we’re authorized!” Entering the lot, he sped around the left side of the saloon set, reached the rear end of the cordoned area, screeched to a halt at his Airstream.
    Turning off the engine, he sat there. “One more thing, genius bro: What I just told you isn’t the end-all. After Mona and I make enough dough with the ranch, we’re retiring totally and opening up a place for kids. Fosters, orphans, you name it.”
    Amazed, Malcolm said, “You’re kidding.”
    “Never thought I had it in me, right? Without Mona, I probably wouldn’t. But look at it this way: It’s a woman’s nature to give love to tykes. Can’t have your own, time to improvise. Mona informs me there’s tons of sad stories out there, kids can’t find a home, talk about getting the short end. So why the hell not? You saw the space. We’ll keep the cool parts from the ranch—the animals, the riding area. We’ll put in a pool, poor little things will think they got to heaven. Which they will have, because let me tell you, Mona’s the perfect mom, she’s got that thing inside her. Heart as big as this damn desert. So what do you think? Of both ideas?”
    “They’re great,” said Malcolm. “I mean that.”
    “Specially the kid bit, right? You’re into that. The psychology. Pops and Moms told me it’s all you talk about. So how come you’re not becoming a shrink?”
    “I figured law made more sense.”
    “More sense?” said Steve. “How so?”
    “Financial stability and all that.”
    “All that,” said Steve. “What, shrinks don’t eat? Freud didn’t have a fancy office?”
    Malcolm didn’t answer.
    “Psychology, baby bro. I’m hearing how interested you are in it, that’s why I got you all those
Playboy
s and
Swank
s for the bathroom. Like a lab experiment.”
    Malcolm cracked up.
    Steve said, “Doing my bit for God, country, and psychology. What do you dig about law?”
    “It’s flexible.”
    “Meaning?”
    “If you change your mind you can do something else with it.”
    “You haven’t started and you’re already figuring on quitting?”
    “No, I’m just saying—”
    “Sorry, don’t mean to bug you,” said Steve. He fiddled with a knob on the dashboard. “You’re a genius, way I see it, you could get a Nobel Prize for shrinkdom, anything you felt like. But sure, if law’s your thing, go for it.”
    Malcolm shrugged. Steve placed his hand on that of his brother. “Lord, that’s a baseball mitt you’ve got there. You’re not worried about what Moms and Pops think, right?”
    A beat. “Right.”
    “I mean they’re gonna think you’re a genius, no matter what. Maybe you don’t know that because you probably haven’t talked to them much since you left. It was the same for me after I split for the Left Coast. You get cut off, but that’s not bad. It’s what a guy does when he leaves. You
leave
. Up
here.
” Tapping his temple. “Right?”
    “Right.”
    “We’re not that different from each other, bro. We each wanna make our own way in the world—why give a damn about what anyone wants, Mal? I know you’ve got twice my brains but I’ve lived a bit and now I’m gonna marry a woman who should be a mom and can’t be. Point is, you never know how life’s gonna turn out so for God’s sake, do whatever the hell you want. Least, that’s how I see it.”
    Rapping on the driver’s door drew their attention. A young woman with a