At that point, I should have gotten back in my car and driven away. Instead, I followed him inside and slipped off my coat, hanging it on the familiar row of hooks behind the door. I was surprised to see that a worn sweater of mine still hung there.
The interior of the trailer was tidy and newly furnished. Decorations and touches of color had been added. It looked neat, comfortable, and inviting. I sat on the new couch, which was good quality and very comfortable.
"Where's Cheryl?" I persisted.
Mike rummaged in the refrigerator and brought out two cans of beer. "She's gone. She tried to trap me into marrying her."
"Trap you?"
"She quit taking her birth control and didn't tell me. She made me fuck her until she was pregnant. She thought she'd trap me into marrying her."
"She made you have sex with her?" I would have said 'fuck' a year ago, but I no longer felt comfortable talking that way around Mike. "You always wanted to have your...I mean, you know what you always wanted."
"Oh, I remember. I remember real well. But she wasn't any good at it." He handed me a can of beer and took a long swallow of his own. "She complained and choked all the time--"
"I don't really want to hear it," I said.
"Fucking was the only thing she knew how to do."
"So she got pregnant and you kicked her out."
"Her parents took her in. They said they never would, but they're her parents, right? Now I'm on my own. In a month, I'm off to basic training, but there'll be no one at home waiting for me."
"Why did you fix up the trailer if you're going away soon?"
"I hoped I could talk you into coming back and living here. You know, when it was good, we had it really good. It can be that way again."