There was a silence on the line. When Pearl spoke again her voice was steady, but underneath it he heard something he had not heard from her since the funeral.
"She walks over here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and she tells Dana it's for homework, and some of it is. But mostly she comes to eat. I make her a real supper and I don't say anything about it, because the first time I said something, she cried and said if I made a fuss, Dana would stop letting her come. She's been buying her own toothpaste with babysitting money since she was fourteen. She wears the same two pairs of jeans. She cleans that house every weekend like it's a job, Mark. Like she's the help. And she has asked me—" Pearl's voice caught. "She has asked me, more than once, not to tell you. Because she said you'd been through enough. Because she thought it would break you. She is sixteen years old, and she has been protecting you."
Mark drove. A grain elevator went by, and then a field of winter wheat already coming up green, and then a billboard for a personal injury attorney.
"Why didn't you call me?" he said finally. It came out rough.
"I did," said Pearl. "Twice. Two Christmases ago and last June. You told me Dana said I was trying to come between you. You told me Junie was having a hard adjustment and I was making it worse. You said, and I remember this word for word, Mark, because I wrote it down, you said, Pearl, I need this to work. I can't do this alone again."
He had said that. He remembered saying it, standing on her porch. He remembered being proud of himself for being firm.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"I know you are. I'm not the one you need to say it to." Her voice gentled, barely. "Where are you?"
"Bartlesville. I'll be home by five."
"The march starts at seven-thirty."
"I know."
"Her dress is gone, Mark. You can't fix silk that's been in Clorox. I've seen it. It just comes apart."
"I know." He put on his blinker and passed a semi hauling cattle. "Pearl. Do you still have Rose's prom dress? The blue one. From senior year."
The silence on the line went on so long he thought the call had dropped.