Faye-Nell wants to see Fred’s face when he comes home to no dinner and no ironed for-the-next-day work clothes. But she won’t because she’ll be gone. She laughs out loud at the thought of him looking confused –his ugly mouth hanging open. She used to always say in her head, “Close your mouth, fool,” but now she says it aloud, falling on the floor with laughter. If he walked in on her, he’d say she looked like a crazy woman and then he’d tell her to do something with her hair. He is always saying, “I hate coming home to you looking like you just woke up. T-Bone’s wife meets him at the door with lipstick on and fishnets.” Fred is never satisfied. If Faye-Nell was napping when he got home, he’d wake her up to cook and if she complained, he’d say, “There’re plenty women that’d cook for me. You should see the way they look at me at work,” and she’d “Tuh!” under her breath as she got up to fix him something. But not tonight –she’s been planning this for months; circled the day on her calendar and wrote the word “leaving” in capital letters. She traced over it so many times, the letters became fuzzy and thick. But now it’s more than a word. Yesterday she bought a ticket to Pittsburgh, where her cousin Melba lives. She can’t wait to have a whole bed to herself and no man shaking her awake to cook breakfast.