One day, while playing hopscotch with some girls, she saw the social worker at school talking to Ms. Cutter. Yellow mushrooms grew in front of Nola's eyes. She felt herself get wet. She dashed to the bathroom and hid there until long after the bell rang, when Ms. Cutter came looking for her. She hugged Nola and told her not to worry, she was a good student, which showed that everything was fine at home. Nola walked around in her wet underwear and jeans until school was over.

The only thing left was to grow up fast and become a famous singer. She'd fill up their cottage with couches, and chairs, and lamps. Then Jenna would live at home, and they would be like any other family.

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9

Another day with this baby, more time to wrap herself in her sweetness. Nola sat with Lulu on the carpet, the baby babbling happily and banging on the keys of a plastic pop-up toy. Nola pressed on the blue key, and a door popped open. Dingggg. The head of a dog jumped up. “Look,” she said and guided Lulu's hand. “Dog,” but Lulu's attention was diverted to the red, green and yellow keys producing a cat, a fox and a cow.

To Nola's surprise, Lulu returned to the blue key and hit it. “Do-o?”

Something sweet spilled into every fiber of Nola's being. “Is she trying to say ‘dog?’ ” she asked Leslie.

“Do-o,” Lulu said and hit the blue key again. She looked up and her almond-shaped eyes twinkled.

“She’s just making baby talk.” Leslie laughed. The tan of his chiseled face emphasized the gray in his eyes. “But one day she’ll make a fine stand-up comedienne.”

Nola kissed the bridge of Lulu's nose. “We need to give you a bath,” she said, but the idea of the slippery body in the water terrified her.

She called the maid in, and after the woman demonstrated how to wrap her forearm around the baby’s back and grip the far arm, Nola felt that another milestone had been conquered.

But there was so much ahead of her. Thoughts of the orphanage right off the Silk Market mixed with her lingering unease over Wade’s equivocation on the subject of Lulu's adoption. Earlier, when she had asked him why he hadn’t talked with Ambassador Ashford as he had promised, he just stood at the window, gazing outside, seemingly preoccupied. She had seen him examining other people from the corner of his eye, calculating, measuring landmarks and positions he could use in a battle. Until now, that person had never been her.

Leslie fished in his bag for combs and arranged them on the vanity table. He lit an incense stick.

“It may be bad for the baby,” Nola said, and he put it out, but some of the spicy aroma lingered.