Rosa said, “You promised to teach me ‘Little Miss Muffet,’ Jack. Can you still do that?”

“Sure,” I told her. “It’s really easy. It’s only six lines.”

“I’m ready.”

I recited the nursery rhyme, explaining along the way to both Rosa and Elizaveta the words “tuffet” and “curds” and “whey.”

“What a stupid song,” Elizaveta said at the conclusion. “Girl sits on tuffet? Runs away from spider?”

“Have you ever heard the Russian version?”

“There is Russian version?”

I nodded and said, “Little Miss Beautymark, crawled in the dark, searching for carrots and potatoes; along came a scorpion, who made her scream like an orphan, and frightened Miss Beautymark away.”

“Wait!” Rosa protested. “Eliza doesn’t have a beauty mark.”

“I needed something that rhymed.”

“Well, ‘potatoes’ and ‘away’ don’t rhyme.”

“Sorry, Rosa. I was sort of making it up on the spot.”

“You can be real jerk, Jack,” Elizaveta said, and her eyes were daggers.

I looked at her, surprised. “It was just a joke, Eliza.”

“You think being orphan is joke? You think it’s funny?”

“It rhymed with scorpion, that’s all.”

“You didn’t know I was an orphan?”

“What? No! You were an orphan?”

“Pita didn’t tell you?”

“No. Eliza, I swear. Shit… If I knew…”

“You don’t have any parents?” Rosa asked her.

“No,” Elizaveta said, still glaring at me. But then the edge left her. She shook her head and said to Rosa softly, “They were taken away.”

“Where did they go?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did they do something bad?”

“No. They were good people.”

“So why were they taken away?”

“It is complicated,” she said. “But very simply, when I was growing up, the leaders in my country had great power. They were like… Do you know puppet-master? They were like that. They controlled everything. Media, economy, political opponents, free speech. They were so afraid of losing power they used surveillance to watch everybody, and terror to keep everybody obedient. They were especially afraid of people like my parents, people who told truth. So one day they just took them away.”

I was watching Elizaveta closely. I could see the pain these memories brought her.

What was it she’d told me earlier?

Not everyone has easy life like you.

I really did feel like a jackass now.

Rosa said, “I don’t think I ever want too much power.”

Elizaveta smiled sadly and rubbed the girl’s hair.

“Why don’t you try to get some sleep, Rosa?” I said.

“I’m still not tired.”

“Morning will come faster if you’re asleep.”

“Can you sing me a lullaby?”

“Me?” I said. “No. I don’t sing.”

She looked at Elizaveta. “Can you?”

“I don’t know lullaby.”

“I can teach you one. But I only know the Spanish. Is that okay?”

“Yes, I can understand Spanish—if you don’t think I will sound too funny?”