“Sorry, babe. I guess I been in the joint longer than I thought.”“So yeah, this kid is like real smart and everything, and he said he’d tutor ...s,” Jamal continued.Brock didn’t look convinced. “This kid from around here?”Jamal shrugged. “No, he’s from across the river.”“Across the river? White boy?” Jamal nodded. “What’s a white boy from across the river doin’ tutoring the likes of you three?”“I don’t really know. It’s kind of like he and his mother are out to save the world one person at a. Casting about for a reasonable means of suggesting her value without embarrassing her, he stumbled onto an old recipe for a most elaborate German chocolate cake. Known to be bereft of culinary skill, that is to say, totally incompetent within yards of a kitchen, he nevertheless undertook that means of expression.Fortunately her day fell on a Monday giving him the weekend to work the alchemy of mundane ingredients to gold. One day to gather the fixins, study the process, plan the exercise,. She made coffee in the morning. I did not tell her what I thought of it.“Since we aren’t coming back here again, I’m going to run your coffee through the grounds again.” She looked at me like I was crazy, but she didn’t stop me.As I drank the stronger coffee I said, “If you have the title to your car carry it. Sell the car somewhere in a larger town. Then get a bus or a train to a new place. Next time pick a tombstone that isn’t a family member.”“I wish you could come with me,” she said.“Some. There's a narrow window just to the left of the door, but his view is mostly obscured by a rather tall vase with what he assumes are artificial flowers on the inside. There's another window further down the porch, and underneath it a rectangular planter with more flowers, although unlike the ones in the window in front of him, these appear somewhat bedraggled and partially chewed.After several seconds, Gavin considers ringing the doorbell again, and is just about to do so when the door in front.