Tiny Little Shanks to the Heartache." She looked at him. "Now you put the _y_ in it, and that's a whole new song. Listen!" "Listen?" "Mmm." She took a deep breath. "Hee-ee-eee! Heee-ee-eee!" "You're nuts, kid." "Heee-ee-eee!" She did it again, her voice dropping down low into a deep, sensual baritone. Tate laughed. "Yeah, right. If you can do it, I can do it." He stood up, cleared his throat, started singing in a deep baritone: "Tiny little shanks, shank the heartache away! Hee-ee-eee!" They laughed. It sounded pretty good, Tate had to admit. And so they stood there giggling, their eyes fixed on the screen, watching the images of the film playing out on the screen, until it reached the end and the screen went dark. "That was pretty good," Tate said. "What a nut you are." "You want to try it? I mean the song, that is? Not the _y_ thing." "Sure. Let's try it." He stopped and looked at her. "We'll play a duet." "Great. Let's try it." He started to strum the opening chord of the song, the one that had started the whole movie. She picked up the tune and sang with him, in perfect harmony. They continued to sing as the images on the screen alternated between close-ups of Tate and Marley, and wide shots of their fingers on the keyboard of an upright piano, as the song was sung with a sort of country-and-western feel. Tate sang: "Don't let my hands and feet go walkin' apart. We have each other to walk to, I can take your hand, Your heart is safe in my heart, and we'll walk together, Just you and me, walking together. And we'll find a way, so together we'll be, Tiny little shanks, that's what we'll be." They kept singing the last line as their faces became more serious, their smiles replaced by something much more serious. Tate paused and looked at Marley. "And I'll be so proud of you, I'll be so proud of you." He turned back to the screen. His face was radiant as he sang the chorus to the song: "When we walk, you'll know by this sign, that we have each other, To walk to, to walk along together. We won't be afraid, when we walk, along together. Walkin' together..." He took Marley's hand and held it. "It's really nice, isn't it?" She nodded. "It is." A few seconds later, the screen went dark, and they sat in silence, staring into the empty screen. Then, almost simultaneously, they turned to each other, and embraced. Marley's lips met his, and he kissed her long and gently. They sat together on the couch for another long while, wrapped in each other's arms. When they pulled apart from one another, they were both smiling, and a little tear ran down Marley's cheek. They gazed into each other's eyes, then looked down, and he kissed her on the lips. She leaned back into him, and she was kissing him, too. They sat there silently, as though still caught in the embrace. Then Tate turned toward her and pulled her close to him again. This time, he kissed her on the mouth. A few moments later, as Tate sat there smiling at Marley, she leaned forward and whispered, "You love her, don't you?" "Pardon?" "Mina. You love her." "I do." "I can tell. You love her a lot, don't you?" "Well... yeah, I guess I do. She's not my mom or anything. But, yeah." "You love her." He turned and looked at her. "You're not so quiet yourself, you know." "That's not what I said." "I know it's not. I know you meant..." "You should have her." Tate shook his head. "I can't, Marley. You're only fifteen. If I had Mina... you know what she's like. There'd be no living with her, especially in my case. I know it wouldn't work." Marley frowned. "Maybe you're right. It wouldn't work. But I'm fifteen, and she's sixteen. She's older than me, anyway. She's a year older than me. How old are you?" "I'll be sixteen in about a week. I'll be seventeen then." "When are you going to be fifteen?" "The twenty-second." "Maybe you'll get to be seventeen... when it's time for me to be sixteen." He thought about it, and then shook his head. "Maybe not." "Well, it would be nice if you were older when I was older." "You'll probably get to be seventeen before I do." "Yeah, I guess you're right." She smiled. "That'll be okay. I'll just get to be a whole lot smarter than you, too." "Don't tell that to anybody. I don't want you to grow up any faster than you have to. I like it when you're this age. I'm just teasing, though." "I know. I'm kind of a smart-ass sometimes. I can be pretty hardheaded sometimes." She laughed. "I'll bet." He paused, then said, "You want to have dinner again? To celebrate your birthday?" "Can we?" "Of course we can. That's what friends are for. We're your friends." "I'm pretty good with that," she said, smiling. "Let's have dinner." "Good." He stood up, holding out his hand to help her up. "And we can play that song on the piano again, if you want to. It's very catchy." "Tate, I think that song would probably go better with a banjo, don't you think?" He laughed. "Yeah, you're right. It would. I forgot. A while ago, it sounded better on a banjo." "Hey," she said, "this is just like the song in _Deliverance_ , isn't it? Remember the banjo and that girl?" "Yeah." He smiled. "So, what do you say? How about we have dinner tonight?" "Yeah, sure. And then you'll play 'Tiny Little Shanks to the Heartache.' Don't forget that." "I won't. You can trust me. We'll eat, then play, and then we'll do what we said we would before, after all that." "Yes," she said, smiling. "Let's do that." # Chapter Eight ### The River House They drove up in a taxi, and Tate followed Marley up the stairs to the house. "This is going to be kind of weird, isn't it?" he asked. "I guess it is," she replied, and looked down. He put his hand on her shoulder. "You want to stop here? Let me go alone?" She looked up and looked at him. "If it'll make you feel better, you can do that." "Okay." He sighed. "I'll be back here in a few minutes. I promise." "Okay." She smiled, and waited for the cab to disappear in the distance. She felt a little sad, but she wasn't sure why. She watched the car slowly disappear up the street and then she headed up the stairs to the door of Mina's house. "Come in," she said to the woman who opened the door for her. Mina looked at her with a strange expression on her face. "Marley?" "I was hoping it was Marley," Tate said from somewhere behind her. He was standing in the hall at the end of the hall, his arms folded across his chest, a look of intense concentration on his face. Mina nodded, a little surprised. "It is. But she's different." "I think she looks the same." He smiled. "You are different." She nodded. "Yes." "How are you, Mina?" She smiled. "You're going to be seeing a lot more of me, Tate." "Really?" "Really." She smiled. He nodded. "That's good. But I didn't know you'd look like her." He turned toward Marley, and he stared at her intently, as though he was studying her. She tried to smile at him, and he turned back to his mother. "Are you a little strange, too?" She shook her head