Love: A Novel

Vida and Sandler have realized that Romen is having sex with Junior, and Vida thinks that Sandler needs to have a talk with him about pregnancy and safe sex. Sandler is reluctant to do so and tries to pacify her by telling her that Junior wouldn’t be working for the Cosey household if she was a bad person. Vida disagrees, insisting that both Christine and Heed are immoral women. Sandler then thinks about how everyone blames Heed for her marriage to Cosey, but she was in a powerless position and did not have any other options. He remembers Cosey talking about her on their fishing trips. Cosey told Sandler that he chose her because he wanted to raise her himself and that he loved watching her grow up. Sandler does not remind Vida of any of this because he doesn’t want to tarnish her golden image of Cosey.

Vida conspires to have Romen accompany Sandler on a trip to deliver meals to shut-ins. As she watches them leave, she thinks about how raising Romen is harder than raising his mother, Dolly. She remembers an incident at the hotel, toward the end of its career, when local teenagers threw fish guts and other offal at Cosey.