But the woman smiled. “Shizuka. It’s a Japanese name … And yours is?”

“Shizuka…”

Mother!

“I mean Lan! My name is Lan Tran.”

Katrina coughed, then winced. The magical day with that violin teacher seemed ever more distant and unbelievable. She’d searched “Shizuka Satomi” on the Internet. No images, no music, no nothing. A few articles mentioned a teacher in Europe by that name, but she would have been far older than that woman in the park.

Skylar was sure it was a scam. Evan suggested she was a tranny chaser who was hoping to give Katrina more than violin lessons.

“Lesbian tranny chaser … ewww … That is so wrong,” Jewel had said. She pointed to the violin case.

“So you want to make videos?”

“Y-yes,” Katrina said. “I’m doing covers of gaming music and some anime. I already posted a few online, and I thought maybe Evan might help—”

Jewel rolled her eyes. “Gaming music? That is so lame!”

“Oh wow, I always wanted a fiddle. How much did you pay for it?” asked Aidynn.

“I-it’s from China. Not too expensive.”

“China … fucking master’s tools. bell hooks said that,” Skylar said.

bell hooks? Katrina had been sure Skylar had quoted Audre Lorde, but what could her violin have to do with Audre Lorde?

Then Evan started talking about wanting to take up the ukulele. Aidynn and Jewel fangirled about a TV show where there was a pawnshop and how weird cool it was and how one day they wanted to check something like that out.

Eventually, Katrina must have fallen asleep. When she came to, Evan had something in his hand.

“How do you play this with no frets?” Evan asked. He was strumming it like a ukulele.

“No! You’ll break it!” Katrina shouted. She reached for it, but Evan pulled it away.

“Dude, chill. I’ve got it ukulele-tuned, but the strings kept slipping and buzzing.”

“The bridge!” Katrina pulled the violin from Evan’s hands.

“Bridge? What?”

Skylar walked into the living room.

“Do you have any money for the bus?”

“What?”

She grabbed Katrina’s purse, fished around, and pulled out a five-dollar bill.

“Thanks, gurl. Gotta go!”

Evan waved to Skylar, then glanced at Katrina. Finally, he went into his bedroom and closed the door.

Katrina listened carefully for any danger. She heard a dog, and an old man across the street. She heard schoolchildren outside.

Softly, she put her violin away and closed her purse. Still quiet. Good. It seemed safe for now.

And Katrina still had not taken a bath.

The shower was still cold and filthy, but there was no time to think about that. She didn’t know how much time she had. She quickly scrubbed, shampooed, conditioned, and felt almost human before Evan came in.

He held her from behind and kissed her.