She found Shelby behind the Kruse trailer, where the generator was, sitting on an overturned five-gallon bucket among the crates of lemons and the drums of syrup, smoking a cigarette badly. She coughed when she saw June and almost dropped it, and then made herself take another drag anyway, which made her cough harder.
"Well," Shelby said, when she could. "If it isn't the Great Halvorsen."
June stood at the corner of the trailer. "You saw."
"I saw." Shelby flicked ash. "Fishing line. It's fishing line. That's all it is. All week, all these people crying over it, the paper, everybody. And it's a cup on a string." She laughed, hard and short. "I've been going crazy. I couldn't sleep. I thought it was magnets. I went to the library at Drake and looked up magnets. I thought—" She stopped. "It's string."
"It's thread," June said. "Nylon. One strand."
"Oh, excuse me." Shelby looked up at her. "You know I could end you. Right? I could walk out there tomorrow at noon in front of all those people and grab that string and hold it up. I could tell the paper. I could tell my dad. One word to my dad and he'd have the fair board on you so fast. Fraud. False advertising. Fishing line hanging over food, what do you think the health department says about that?" She tapped the cigarette. "Your stand would be done. Your grandma's corner. All of it."
June's heart was beating so hard she could feel it in her teeth. She thought about lying. She thought about begging. She thought about the payment and the word proceed and the red barn with the sway in its spine.
"Then do it," she said.
Shelby blinked.
"If you're going to, do it," June said. "I can't stop you. You're bigger than me and your dad has four stands and we have one. But I saw you in the cattle barn on Sunday. With your steer."
Shelby's face went white under the tan.
"I didn't tell anybody," June said. "I'm not going to. I'm not saying it to get you back. I'm just saying I know you're not—" She didn't know how to finish. "I know it's not easy. Your dad. I heard what he said. About nobody giving you anything."
"Shut up," Shelby said, but there wasn't any force in it.