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"What do they do for a living?"

"She runs a gas station. She's the boss, so I guess that's a good job. He builds things, things in houses, like shelves and stuff, but he doesn't work that much. He always used to say that she left him with forty-two dollars in the bank."

I nodded.

"She stayed with the other guy for a while, but then she got pregnant, again." She shook her head. "She's not very bright. Anyway, the other guy kicked her out, so she came home."

"It was that easy?"

She shrugged. "I guess. I wasn't there. They did fight about it."

"She was pregnant, with no home," I said. "He was broke, with a daughter. She still had a good job..."

"Something like that. He... I think he promised to treat me like I was his."

"But you weren't. And he didn't."

"No."

"And you were a reminder that his wife had left him for another man, and had only come home when she'd had no choice."

Ron seldom looked really happy, but now that she'd reached the part of the story where she was an active participant she looked thoroughly miserable.

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