"Looking back on it, Peg realized that Emmaline knew all kinds of grown-up stuff, a lot more than Peg, which could be embarrassing. Sometimes Peg tried to pretend she knew, like when Emmaline talked about French-kissing with Merle and asked Peg if her father ever French-kissed her. Peg was horrified and couldn't think of what to say. "Why do you call your daddy Merle?" she asked. "He's not my daddy." The girls had stayed out too long and Miss Ruby, Emmaline's mother, was pretty mad. When they had got back to where the street ended in the Weeds, they could hear Miss Ruby yelling out of the kitchen window. "Emmaline, Emmaline! Git in her, girl!" Emmaline looked a little scared. "You come in, Peg, " she said over her shoulder as she ran ahead. "Then she won't hit me." Peg wasn't too crazy about facing an angry Miss Ruby. Even worse were Emmaline's older brother, Harry, and his friends, who mostly didn't wear shirts or go to school. They just worked on the cars and motorcycles parked in their driveway. Definitely not well bred, Peg thought. But Peg wasn't a chicken, so she followed Emmaline. When she got to the door, Miss Ruby was holding Emmaline by the arm and whispering in her ear in a kind of hiss. "Girl, you was supposed to be washing--Oh, hi, Peg." She let go of Emmaline. Bright red stripes from her fingers circled Emmaline's upper arm. "Well, give your friend something to drank." Miss Ruby walked away. When she opened the door to the back bedroom, Peg could hear men talking."--back cover.