Too Late

Years earlier, Asa remembers his father watching for men at the window. He says the men will shoot him and hide his body, and he continually tells Asa to check the door to make sure it’s locked. He is only nice to Asa when he needs help with something, like fortifying the house against intruders.

One day, he makes Asa hide under the house because he says the men are there. Asa waits all day and into the evening, but his father never comes to get him. When he goes inside late that night, his father is in his recliner, dozing. He asks where Asa has been and scolds him for getting his clothes muddy and for waking him. Elsewhere in the house, Asa’s mother is high on pills. Asa takes one and is soon high as well.

While under the influence of the drug, he thinks about his friend Brady, who has a nice mother. One day, Brady gave Asa his mother’s homemade coconut cake at lunch since Brady didn’t want it. Asa is jealous of the affectionate and supportive notes Brady’s mom writes for him. He stole one from Brady’s lunchbox and pretended his mother wrote it.