We speak through the bars of my prison grate and she passes things to me through the bars. She brings me food and things to drink other than the water I can get from my bathroom sink.

She is serious about her school work. She is almost at a middle school level, which tells me she is smart and that Mick, or someone else, has been guiding her through the material. The subject matter is easy for me to teach. Simple algebra. Grammar. Earth science. The challenge comes from her impatience when she gets stuck. She is quick to anger and I am learning how to manage her moods.

When she is not doing schoolwork, she watches television shows on an iPad. Mick downloads new shows for her when he leaves the house and she watches them many times. She does not like the days when he takes her iPad with him. It makes her anxious.

The shows are familiar to me, like Mickey Mouse. She also has movies, some of which are too mature for her, but I say nothing. It is not my job to be her mother.

It is only my job to be her second mommy.

“You’re a good second mommy,” she tells me. And when she tells me this, I feel a heat inside my body. Because on other days, she tells me different things that make my blood cold.

“If you can’t be a good second mommy, we will have to get a new one.”

It is in these moments that I question what I might be capable of doing.

I have learned that the phone was never dead.

There is no phone line connected. I asked Alice about this and she said she uses it all the time. I asked her how. She said she plays pretend with it. I asked her what kind of sound it makes.

“There’s no sound on a phone unless someone calls you, silly. Didn’t you ever have a phone?”

“I have a cell phone. And you’re right. If you just hold it to your ear it doesn’t make any sound. But a phone like the one in the kitchen is not a cell phone. It’s an older kind of phone and when you pick it up, it usually makes a sound.”

This made her angry too. “There’s no sound! I told you that. Phones don’t make sounds.”

That’s when I knew there was no landline.

No Internet. No phone line.

Mick and Alice live off the grid. Except for the electricity and the gas. I wonder about this. I wonder who pays those bills and what name holds the accounts. I wonder who owns this property. And why no one came here to search it after I disappeared. The article he showed me said they went door to door.

When Alice calmed down, she considered things.