One time Alice heard a pastor tell about the nature of frogs, how if you drop them into hot water they’ll jump out as quickly as they can, but if you start them out in a pot of cool water, then set it on the fire, why, they’ll just sit there until they burn to death.

Alice put the last load of laundry in the dryer then headed to the couch to fold Steve’s work uniforms. Sweat trickled down from under her breasts and from her brow. Her mousy brown hair hung limp and so did her body. She had gotten old. She fought it off for as long as she could, but they had been in the cauldron for so long, for years and years now, she just couldn’t help it. No more youthful vitality for her.

Steve still thought she looked pretty. Just thinking of him brought her peace. She didn’t know what she would do without him. He had all those qualities she respected most in a man - faithfulness, a strong mind, a strong body - and, oh, what a body - dependability, justness. He had a dangerous side, too, which is what attracted her in the first place - that perfect mix of dangerous and sweet. The dangerous part led to the money woes that had plagued them throughout their marriage. They passed through all those years of drug abuse and came out a little worse for wear, but clean and sober. Still, though, some consequences were life-long, and no matter how hard they tried to move forward in life, they couldn’t change the fact that they started years too late, and with tarnished reputations.

Steve was cute, though, and as adolescent as it seemed, that mattered to her. He got better looking as he got older which chagrined her just a little. She kept reminding him that when they met, she was the cute one. He kept reminding her that he still saw it that way. Their lives were full of passion, as if that was how Steve coped with it all. It seemed like every time a crisis happened, and there were too many crises to count, he turned amorous.

Alice picked up another pair of Dickies and tucked the pockets back to the inside then shook them with a decisive flick of her wrists. They were hot from the dryer and she wanted to put them away as quickly as she could.

Randy got arrested for carrying a concealed weapon last night. He carried the stupid little .22 in his glove box because he worked nights as a pizza delivery boy. Alice actually bought it for him and made him carry it. He didn’t think he needed it, but he was her youngest child and he delivered to the barrios late at night. It made her feel better that he had it. She didn’t even realize he could get arrested for it. A ticket for speeding turned into a felony arrest.

Steve went to bail him out. The arresting officer was kind enough to call and let Steve come pick up Randy’s ancient little Toyota pick-up so at least they didn’t have to pay all the towing and impound fees. They let Randy out on his own recognizance - released him to Steve’s custody. Randy would have to go to Youth Diversion. Alice knew all about Youth Diversion. Kim had to go there after she got in a fight at school last year, and Denise had to go there after she got caught with marijuana two years ago.

Alice carefully matched the seams at the hems of the Dickies, ran her fingers along the creases, then folded the pants in half. She set them on top of the stack and wiped the sweat from under her bangs with her forearm.

Now she had a perfect record. All three of her children had been arrested. White trash. That’s what her mother called them. No inheritance - they’d just squander it on drugs and God knows what else. "Awww, come on, Mom. Just because we live in a mobile home, just because Steve wears a uniform to work - a blue one," she couldn’t help the rueful smile, "just because all my kids have been arrested, you want to label us ‘white trash?’" Alice never spoke the words, of course, she only imagined speaking them. Her mother didn’t have much of a sense of humor about Alice’s life and her family. Neither did Alice, for that matter, but she had to adjust to the temperature of the water somehow.

Kim got a stern talking to by the officer. They all knew the truth, or, at least, Alice wanted to believe they did. Kim only defended herself against the girl who had threatened and tormented her all year - over a boy - a boy Kim didn’t even like anymore. The school knew what a troublemaker the other girl was. They didn’t even expel Kim. But the police arrested her on felony assault and battery because, the officer explained, if a fight causes more than five stitches or any broken bones, it’s a felony. The girl fell to her knees, right on top of a broken sprinkler, and required exactly six stitches. So they arrested Kim on felony assault and battery and questioned her without benefit of an attorney, or even her mother, but Kim told the truth and so did the other witnesses. Kim had acted in self-defense. They ended up dropping the charges.

Denise was in a car with three other kids, one of which was twenty-one. They were smoking a joint in the school parking lot when the cop pulled up. The twenty-one year old thought quickly. She handed the joint to Denise, then dropped the bag of weed out the door, flinging it under the car. Of the four of them, only Denise got arrested. She got expelled from High School, went to Youth Diversion, got a slap on the wrist, lost her license until her twenty-first birthday, and that was that. Now Alice drove her to work and picked her up then drove her to night school and picked her up because there was no bus service out where they lived.

Alice picked up the stack of uniforms and put them away. She stripped off her clothes and stepped into the shower. She did that several times a day when it got up into the hundreds like it did. July and August, even September, were killer months. She let the cold water wash away her sweat, then she stepped out and put her droopy clothes back on.

Alice zapped some leftovers in the microwave for lunch, then flipped the remote and watched the qualifying race for the summer Olympic’s US men’s eight crew. The favored team lost in an upset victory for Korea. It was a beautiful race, though. They only lost by .02 seconds. Their oars moved in perfect unison, the paddles barely grabbing the water, leaving little whitecaps where the tips breached the surface.

The phone rang, and Alice’s heart started to pound. How long had it been since the phone represented a good sound - a greeting from a friend, or Steve calling from work to say he got hard thinking about her, or the doctor calling with a friendly reminder about the appointment the next day. Now, it brought only bad news. Since January there had been a total of twelve car crashes, three blown engines, one blown tranny, one arrest, two calls from the emergency room, and umpteen calls from AT & T informing her of their newest services. It rang again and Alice stood there in front of it for a moment, gathering her courage to see what dire news it would bring today. She wiped her palms, then said, "Hello." It didn’t come cheerily, as it had in the past. Now it came defensively, fearfully.

"Hey, baby."

It was Steve. She didn’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. She clenched the receiver in her fist and asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said. "Except I got written up for being late today."

Well, all things considered, that wasn’t the worse news in the world. Still, though, she felt badly for him. He did an excellent job, always working hard, appreciated by his boss. "Couldn’t you tell him to take it out of your vacation time?" she asked.

"I did, but I didn’t call first. Jack would have let it slide, but Tim was on the phones this morning so he knew I hadn’t called. He made Jack right me up."

"He’s a jerk," she said.

"Oh, well. What are you gonna do?"

"How many do you have?"

"This is the second one this year. I can’t get another one before October, or I’m fired."

The baby woke up from his nap. Alice had preached to her daughters about unwanted pregnancy for as long as she could remember, but she didn’t stress it as much with Randy. He being a boy and all, it just didn’t seem as big an issue. Now his baby and girlfriend lived with them.

The baby was a joy once Alice got used to the idea of being a grandma. Besides, the title grandma matched all her suddenly sprouting gray hairs. She sat in the rocker, fed him his bottle, and took comfort in the softness of him - his baby smell, his big unworried blue eyes, his little hand holding her finger.

She blew on his sweaty head to cool him while he ate.