Evidence of Things Not Seen by Lindsey Lane

car like he was going to drop it.
    The car swerved. Karla slid across the backseat. Her momma held the wheel with one hand and reached across the seat with the other, trying to grab the bill.
    “Goddamnit. Jimmy, Stop your goddamn truck and pay me my money.”
    The pickup truck slowed but it didn’t stop. The man reached farther out the window. The bill flapped in his fingertips.
    “Karla Ray! Get your little butt up and get my twenty bucks.”
    “But Momma—”
    “Get it before I stop the car and beat your backside twenty times.”
    Karla set her bear on the floor and knelt on the backseat. She leaned out the window and grabbed onto the handle above the door. As she stood, she leaned farther out away from the car. The man’s hand was right there. She could grab the bill and be done. But the hot wind caught her. It whipped through her hair and across her face. The stink of the heavy marsh air was gone. It was warm. She reached past the man’s arm and hung her body farther out the window. Maybe she could fly.
    Slap. Her thigh burned.
    “Karla. Quit fooling.”
    Karla pulled herself back inside the car. As she did, she grabbed the bill out of the man’s hand and flopped onto the backseat.
    The white of her momma’s palm flashed in front of her face. “Give it.”
    Karla handed the bill to her momma and picked up her bear.
    “That’s a good girl.”
    The two vehicles were still barreling down the two-lane blacktop. Karla looked over at the man in the pickup truck. He was staring at her. Then he leaned out the window, slowing down a little.
    “How much for a poke at her, Sandy?”
    “Way more than twenty bucks.”
    “How much for another one with you?”
    “Depends on what you want.”
    “Same. I’m a married man.”
    “Pull over.”
    Karla felt the car slow down and bump as the tires dropped off the highway. Then it jerked to a stop. The gravel and sand skidded to silence. As soon as they stopped, the oily marsh air crawled in the window and lay on top of Karla. The night glowed orange with the refinery lights across the marsh.
    The front door opened and slammed shut. Karla watched as her momma strutted up to the man walking toward her. She only came up to his chest.
    “You better pay me first. Goddamnit.”
    “You’re a tough little bitch.”
    “That’s right. Just the way you like me.”
    Her momma’s palm flashed again. This time at the man. He pulled out his wallet and put a bill in her hand. She walked to the marsh side of the man’s truck but the man didn’t move. He was looking into the car at Karla. Karla wasn’t sure he could see her so she hugged her bear in front of her and slid farther down in the seat to make sure he couldn’t.
    “Let’s do it right here.”
    Karla’s momma turned. She was standing off to the side. Karla could see her face framed in the passenger window. She followed the man’s eyes to the backseat where her eight-year-old daughter sat. At first, anger flickered in her eyes and her mouth tensed like it always did when Karla sassed her. Then Karla watched her momma’s lips curl like another car chase had started and she was going to win.
    “Having an audience’ll cost extra.”
    “How much?”
    Karla watched her momma measure the man, trying to figure out how much extra he’d pay, how much would drive him away. “Another twenty.”
    He pulled out another bill and handed it to her momma. He never stopped staring into the car. Karla saw her momma step toward the man. She took the money and dropped out of view. Karla heard the gritty notches of the man’s zipper. She slid down in the backseat till all she could see was the blank starless night. She knew the man was still looking in the car. She heard his hands grab the hood. She could feel the car rock in time with his grunts. Faster.
    It was almost over.
    It had just begun.
     
     
    “We’ll make it like a party, Karla Ray. It will be a party,” her momma said. “A thousand-dollar party. All paid up. We’ll