“Well here we go,” she smiled happily and she sighed with contentment to see Bette sitting there in her truck with her long brown legs crossed at the ankles and her hair down around her shoulders.

“She has a way home?” Bette asked.

Tina nodded.  “Yes, took care of that.  That’s the same old group of gals been coming on Mondays since I know of.  They all look after her.”  Tina pulled out into traffic and headed down one street and then turned and merged onto the main drag. 

As they came up to the gas station and garage, Tina slowed down and turned in and pulled her truck up to the pump.  Bette looked around, thinking she’d see Cecil roll out of the office, but instead a young boy, not much older than Tina came jogging out of the office.

“Hey ya, Christina.  You needin’ a fill up?” he asked. 

“Got it Scotty,” Tina said and she began to pump her own gas. 

The boy came over to Tina anyways and Bette began to study him.  He was dressed in a similar blue work shirt that Tina had been wearing when Bette and Coleman had first spotted her Saturday afternoon.  But then Bette realized all the stall doors to the garage where shut.  Only the blinds and shades to the office were up.  She wasn’t clear if this young man was working the station or not.

“We doing okay so far today?” Tina asked the boy.

He nodded and started to clean her windows.

“You don’t gotta, Scotty.  We’ll be hittin’ bugs on the highway and I’ll wash her up tomorrow,” Tina said.

“I ain’t minding,” he said and he kept to his task.  “I got to earn my pay.”

Bette saw Tina smile and then laugh.  She finished up at the pump and then she gently pulled the squeegee from the boy’s hand and said, “You earn your pay just fine.  Of that I’m never in doubt.”

The boy nodded and shrugged.  “Thank you, Christina, ma’am.”

Bette squinted a little and looked more closely.  Yes, she could see it now.  The boy had the tell-tale signs of some sort of developmental delay.

Tina got in her truck and the boy continued to stand there and watch her.  “Listen,” Tina said as she leaned out the window. “Maybe you could talk to your mama, see if she might not let you work a few mornings during the week.  I got a guest in town and wouldn’t mind having some hours off to visit.  Whatcha you think about that?”