On Saturday mornings Marya’s aunt Wilma did her grocery shopping at the Loblaws store on Ash Street. Sometimes Marya was welcome to ride along to town with the others, sometimes not. (Wilma’s own children, Lee and Alice, were always welcome, of course.) If Marya asked timidly the night before whether she could come along to town, Wilma would say, “That depends,” in a mysterious voice, not meeting Marya’s eye. She was boss of the household, after all—second in power only to Everard, who rarely troubled himself with household matters—which meant she could give out favors or withhold them according to whim. Or she could offer a favor, then abruptly withdraw it. Then abruptly offer it again. Marya was to learn: her aunt Wilma couldn’t be manipulated into anything, Oh no she couldn’t, just try her! Then you’d get on her bad side and she’d give you sidelong nasty looks or no looks at all, which was worse. That was Wilma. Hotheaded one minute but the next minute you’d hear her singing, a husky throaty voice like somebody over the radio—Harry Belafonte was her favorite singer these days—still that didn’t mean Wilma was really truly in a good mood because she could change back in an instant if she caught Marya staring at her. “What are you looking at, for God’s sake?” Wilma might say, coloring in exasperation. “Go on away! Go back in your room! Can’t you read a comic book or something? Where’s Alice? Go play with Alice.”

I hate you, thought Marya, her face caught in a frozen little half smile. I wish you were dead.

But no: Marya wished Alice was dead. So that she could be Wilma’s daughter and wear Alice’s clothes, sleep in Alice’s bed, sharing it with no one. Maybe it would be that Alice hadn’t ever been born so that nobody would remember her, Wilma wouldn’t miss her, all along it had been Marya who was Wilma’s real daughter, then they’d sit in the kitchen having cola the way Wilma liked it in a glass, not out of the bottle the way the men drank, Wilma liked the “sizzle” she called it, that funny sensation going up your nose like tiny bubbles popping. And so did Marya.

And if Alice was gone then maybe Lee was gone too?