Betrayed, I Rise novel · Chapter 10 of 32

Chapter 10: Salt Creek, Before

The RV backed out of the dead end with its mirror screeching down the fence again.

Nobody in the yard moved until it was gone.

Then the welder spat on the concrete.

"Nine ninety-nine," he said. "For roses. I'd have been ashamed."

Somebody laughed.

Then all of them did, and they went back to work.

I sat down on the office steps.

Troy sat down next to me, not too close.

"What was the paper?" he said.

I told him.

He listened to all of it without interrupting. The proxy. My mother's shares. The vote on June thirtieth. My father's letter.

"So on the thirtieth," Troy said slowly, "if your vote goes to him..."

"Salt Creek passes. Your yard's gone. He's on the board."

"And if it doesn't?"

"I don't know. I don't even know if my shares are enough."

He was quiet.

"Well," he said. "Don't sign anything with a map in it."

I laughed. It hurt.

I took my wallet out of my back pocket.

It still had the campus map in it. Folded into sixteenths, soft as cloth from a year of being opened.

The coffee shop with the golden retriever. The food truck. The ugly statue of the man on the horse.

"What would my girl do without me?"

I unfolded it one last time.

Then I tore it in half, and in half again, and dropped the pieces into the oil drum they used for trash by the steps.

Behind the map in my wallet was all the money I had in the world.

Two hundred and twelve dollars, in cash.

"I can pay you rent," I said.

"You can pay me in photos," Troy said. "My website's a picture of a boat from 2009."

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