Emily is an adult when she reads that Carstairs Jones has married a famous movie star. She is happy for him, and remembers what Car was like when they were both children. Emily and her mother moved to Hilton, a town in the middle South, when Emily was eleven and in seventh grade. Car Jones was then fourteen and in the same class as Emily. He had been held back year after year by teachers who believed he had not learned the curriculum. Car was one of the "truck children" — he belonged to the lowest socioeconomic class in the town. Emily and her mother were considered to be of high socioeconomic status. One day, some popular girls included Emily in a game called 'Truth or Consequences,' and Emily was asked whether she'd rather be eaten alive by ants or kiss Car Jones. She responded that she'd rather kiss Car. Her peers began to tease her about wanting to kiss Car, and Emily enjoyed more and more popularity: girls knew her name now; boys noticed her. Car Jones began to leave little notes for Emily on her desk, which made Emily uncomfortable. One day, Car left a note telling Emily to meet him in a vacant lot on a Saturday morning. When she did, Car told her that they had to kiss, because Emily said she would. Emily began to cry, and Car kissed her and then ran away. On the following Monday, Car was not in class, and soon the whole grade had heard the news: Car had demanded to be tested for high school and had easily placed into a school year with students his own age. Emily hears snippets about Car's life throughout the years: he becomes a town person, a graduate student, a playwright. She thinks about Car's most recent news — his marriage to the movie star — and reflects that perhaps their kiss that day in the vacant lot was Car's last act as a 'bad' kid. He probably doesn't even remember Emily at all, now.