A side from voices, the other trouble with hush money is, it comes with a price.

A big price.

I didn’t know that at the time. I just knew that Ma would be home any minute, and the only place I could think to hide a king-sized Snickers was my stomach. Maybe because it was the place I wanted to hide it. But I was short on time, so I sat in my corner, chewing and stuffing like a skittery squirrel.

I’d been wanting a Snickers forever. And the parts were all there—the chocolate and caramel and crunchy peanuts—but it didn’t taste the same. It didn’t even taste good.

It tasted like gulping down fear.

When it was gone, I felt sick. Sick, and jumpier than ever. Like I was back to hiding from Cliff.

Then I started worrying about the wrapper. First I stuffed it in my pocket. But then I started thinking…what if it worked its way up? What if I forgot and pulled it out? What if Ma checked my pockets while I was sleeping?

So I took it out of my jeans and buried it at the bottom of the kitchen trash.

But there wasn’t much in the trash bin, and I could just see the wrapper flashing to life somehow. Unfurling like a flag, surrendering to Ma as she threw something else away!

So I dug it out quick, found some scissors, and made for the bathroom like a cat escaping a hose. Two heartbeats later, “Lincoln!” came cryin’ through the door. “Lincoln, where are you?”

Lightning hit my scissors and cut up that candy wrapper. “Here, Ma! Be right out!” I hollered.

“Oh, thank the Lord,” Ma cried.

I pressed the toilet lever, calling, “What’s wrong?” ’cause I could tell something was and I was praying it had nothing to do with me.

“It’s the Man.”

“Levi?” The cyclone of water was sweepin’ candy wrapper evidence round and round and down the drain as dread went washing over me. “What happened to him?” I stashed the scissors quick and found Ma rag-dollin’ in a kitchen chair.

She sat up some, and her hands covered her mouth as she shook her head. “They tased him.”

“Tased him? Who did? And why?”

“The police.” She looked square at me. “He was shouting and cussing and…and wouldn’t do what the police told him to.”

“What were they telling him to do?”

“To calm down and put his hands up.”

“But…why? What did he do?”

“I have no idea. Maybe it was being surrounded by uniforms that set him off. I tried to get him to calm down, but he didn’t even seem to know who I was. And the things he was saying…it’s like he was someone else. Someplace else.”

“Things like what, Ma?”

“I don’t remember! None of it made sense! He was acting crazy! He lunged at one of the cops and they tased him.” She sat panting, her eyes brimming like she was going down in choppy waters. “They tased him and hauled him off.”

I wanted to say, “But he was fine! I saw him! He was twinklin’ and negotiating hush-money candy! There was nothing crazy about him!”

But I didn’t.

I just stood there, watching Ma drown in the things she’d seen.

“It’s okay, Lincoln,” she said, tossing me a life preserver. “We don’t know what’s going on in that man’s mind. What voices he hears. What battles he’s still fighting.”

I wanted to tell her everything, but I was afraid she’d freak out. Afraid she’d be mad. Afraid everything would be…different. So what finally came squeakin’ out of me was, “You think he’ll be back?”

She was quiet plenty long enough to make me squirm. Then she sighed and said, “There’s got to be someplace better for him than a dirty sidewalk. Let’s hope he lands there instead.”

She stretched out her arms, and when she wrapped them around me, it was like she was holding on for dear life.

I just stood there with my mouth locked down tight.

Trapped.