The thing was that in a sense Manuel had been traded for a washing machine. My mother, furious and ashamed to find herself pregnant at 19, had made several quick moves. One was to tell her hesitant boyfriend that, if he needed to consult his mother about marriage, he could fuck off back to her altogether. Another was to return the car that her dad had given her to help her move to a university town, because she could not now bear any felt debt, or his anger on top of her own. And the third was, in discussions with the ex-boyfriend's mother, to refuse ongoing child support. The ex-boyfriend was weak and she was not going to be beholden to them. But she needed a washing machine. She would take a washing machine. They found one for $5 at a second hand dealer and brought it around.