Jasper shook her head. “Not at all, no. Or anyway, I haven’t learned anything about being Jewish. But I’ve always been kind of curious. And, like, whenever there’s a Jewish character in a movie or something, a little flare goes up in my head, like I’m sort of connected to it, in a way. But that’s not really important. Anyway, when things got really bad with my mom last year, they sent me to live with my sister, who is fifteen years older than me, and also a mess, but in a totally different way.”

“What do you mean?”

“See, she is married to the biggest creep in the world, and they have these two kids, and he hits her.”

“Hits her?”

“He hits her,” said Jasper. “Not often, but enough that I saw it. More than once. And hard.”

“Like, with his hand?”

“Sure, that. But also like . . . once I saw him crack her across the arm with a dog leash. Choke chain and all.”

“Oh,” I said. My voice sounded weird and stiff, like my throat was dried out. “I don’t—”

“Yeah,” said Jasper when I didn’t go on. “You don’t. But here’s the thing—if you get sent to live with your mess of a sister, after they take you away from your mess of a mom, and her creep husband hits her in front of you, what do you think you’re supposed to do?”

“You tell your sister to leave him?” I guessed.

“Bingo!” said Jasper. “But if you do that, your sister tells you she can’t leave him. She’s afraid she won’t get to keep the kids, because he makes all the money and will have a great lawyer. So she stays with him.” Jasper paused and looked at me. “You still okay?”

I was stunned. I didn’t know how to respond. This was all so far past anything I’d ever experienced. These weren’t kid problems. But I managed a nod.

“So after you tell your sister she needs to leave him or you’ll call the cops yourself, because you can’t stand to watch her get hurt like that, she tells you that if you can’t stand to watch it happen, you should just leave. And after a while, that is what you do. Your sister gives you some cash and her old phone, and warns you that if you get caught, she’s not taking you back. So you’d better keep your mouth shut or you’re going to a group home.”

“Group home?”

She nodded. “It doesn’t sound very nice, does it?”

I shook my head. “The whole thing sounds really bad.”

“Yep, it’s very bad,” said Jasper. “No doubt about it.” She reached for a pickle and took a big bite.

“So, but then how’d you end up here? How’d you find this place?”