Free Acts of God by Ellen Gilchrist

the house and returned in a few minutes with a tray and glasses full of ice and a pitcher and a plate of cookies. She set it down between them and poured the tea.
    â€œWhere’s Daniel?” Grady asked.
    â€œHe’s gone to spend the night with John Tucker. They have a test tomorrow and they are going to study for it over there. They were so high over the game I don’t know how they are going to study history.”
    â€œI’m high over the game. When I was in high school I think we beat Springdale one time. We beat them by one point at one homecoming and that was because their quarterback was sick.”
    The moon had come out from in between clouds and was very bright. It was cool and the moon was bright and they were both scared to death of how much they liked sitting on the porch steps drinking Sports Tea and having seen their children win a football game. It made Grady so nervous he ate four of Carly’s homemade chocolate chip cookies before he stopped himself.
    â€œWhat did you want to ask me about New Orleans?” Carly asked, but Grady couldn’t for the life of him remember and had to make something up.
    â€œI heard some men almost got blinded because someone threw gallons of Clorox into the water at one of the pumping stations that take the water back out into the Gulf. Did you know anything about that?”
    â€œYes, I know all about it. We had a lecture about it the next day. There were people down there doing things no one in the world would believe. After a while it quieted down but the first week it was chaos.”
    â€œI was only there two days and most of the time I was driving around wrecked neighborhoods or being taken to see places they want to use for landfill. They don’t even know where they can take the stuff that needs picking up. I kept telling people they ought to take tractors and just pile it up behind the levees on the lake to use for second barriers. Why move all that wood and debris fifty miles up to farmland? Or why not burn some of it? Well, no one’s in charge. That’s the biggest problem. No one has the power to say what’s going to happen next. I took a lawyer down there with me and he couldn’t believe the contracts they were wanting me to sign. He said he wasn’t even sure what the jurisdiction would be if something went wrong. Mostly, they can’t promise who’s going to pay for work.”
    â€œIt’s really good to talk to someone who’s seen it. I’m about worn out from answering questions from everyone at school. They can’t imagine it. Let’s sit on the swing.” Carly got up and then bent down to get the tray but Grady already had it and had moved it to a table near the porch swing. Carly sat on one side of the swing. Her white cotton skirt was soft and made of something that looked like a soft, soft sheet. When she sat in the moonlight on the swing, the material fit down against her legs and draped along her knees and Grady was glad it was dark when he sat down across from her on a chair.
    â€œI’m not saying anything,” he said at last. “I mean, I don’t want to say anything you think is wrong. But I want you to go out with me and soon. I want to be with you. Is that okay to say, Carly Dixon? Is that going to make you mad at me?”
    â€œI want to make love to you,” she answered. “So does that make you mad? But not now, it’s too soon and you’ll think I’m some sort of easy chick or promiscuous and I’m not and I never have been. But Daniel’s gone to spend the night and we’re both here. I don’t know. What would happen if we went inside?”
    â€œWe could take a chance,” he said. “I might have forgotten how. It’s been awhile. It’s been two months at least.”
    â€œDo you have a rubber?”
    â€œI might have one in the car. Or I’ll go get one.”
    â€œThen go look,” she said.