“You want me to hold it down?” Carmen asked her. “Or do you want to kneel up?”
Ellie thought about it. Reacher was starting to wonder if this kid ever made a quick, easy decision. He saw a little of himself in her. He had taken things too seriously. The kids in every new school had made fun of him for it. But usually only once.
“I’ll kneel up,” she said.
It was more than kneeling. She stood on the vinyl bench in a kind of crouch, with her hands planted palms-down on the table around the base of the glass, and her head ducked to the straw. As good a method as any, Reacher figured. She started sucking her drink and he turned to look at his own. The ice cream was a round greasy spoonful. He found the cola way too sweet, like it was mixed from syrup in the wrong proportions. The bubbles were huge and artificial. It tasted awful. A long way from a childhood summer’s day in Germany. “Don’t you like it?” Ellie asked. Her mouth was full, and she sprayed a little of the mixture onto his sleeve.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You’re making a funny face.”
“Too sweet,” he said. “It’ll rot my teeth. Yours, too.”
She came up with a huge grimace, like she was showing her teeth to a dentist.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said. “They’re all going to fall out anyway. Peggy’s got two out already.”
Then she bent back to her straw and vacuumed up the rest of the drink. She poked at the sludge in the bottom of the glass with her straw until it was liquid enough to suck.
“I’ll finish yours, too, if you want,” she said.
“No,” her mother said back. “You’ll throw up in the car.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“No,” Carmen said again. “Now go to the bathroom, O.K.? It’s a long way home.”
“I went already,” Ellie said. “We always go at school, last thing. We line up. We have to. The bus driver hates it if we pee on the seats.” Then she laughed delightedly. “Ellie,” her mother said.
“Sorry, Mommy. But it’s only the boys who do that. I wouldn’t do it.” “Go again anyway, O.K.?”
Ellie rolled her eyes theatrically and clambered over her mother’s lap and ran to the back of the diner. Reacher put a five over the check. “Great kid,” he said.
“I think so,” Carmen said. “Well, most of the time.” “Smart as anything.”
She nodded. “Smarter than me, that’s for sure.”
He let that one go, too. Just sat in silence and watched her eyes cloud over. “Thanks for the sodas,” she said.
He shrugged. “My pleasure. And a new experience. I don’t think I’ve ever bought a soda for a kid before.”
“So you don’t have any of your own, obviously.” “Never even got close.” “No nieces or nephews? No little cousins?” He shook his head.
“I was a kid myself,” he said. “Once upon a time, and a long time ago. Apart from what I remember about that, I don’t know too much about it.”
“Stick around a day or two and Ellie will teach you more than you ever wanted to know. As you’ve probably guessed.”
Then she looked beyond his shoulder and he heard Ellie’s footsteps behind him. The floor was old and there were obviously air pockets trapped under the buckled linoleum because her shoes made hollow slapping sounds.
“Mom, let’s go, “she said.
“Mr. Reacher is coming, too,” Carmen said. “He’s going to work with the horses.”
He got up out of the booth and saw her watching him.
“O.K.,” she said. “But let’s go.”
They pushed outside into the heat. Past the middle of the afternoon, and it was hotter than ever. The Crown Victoria was gone. They walked around to the Cadillac and Ellie climbed through to the back seat. Carmen sat for a long moment with her hand resting on the key. She closed her eyes. Then she opened them again and started the engine.
She drove back through the crossroads and past the school again and then more than sixty miles straight south. She went pretty slowly. Maybe half the speed she had used before. Ellie didn’t complain. Reacher guessed she thought this was normal. He guessed Carmen never drove very fast on her way home.