“How do you get around?” Rat asks.

They have a van which they run off used oil from deep fryers, Pauline says. “You go round to a kebab shop, most people are pretty happy to unload their dirty oil on you, saves them hauling it to the dump themselves.”

For the first time Morgan speaks up. “You can run a car off cooking oil?”

Pauline is more than willing to describe the exact chemical process by which a car’s engine converts vegetable oil to carburant—of course, you have to mix it with a little diesel—but this part’s too much like school for Rat.

“So you guys live pretty much without money?” she interrupts.

“Pretty much. We do a lot by barter.”

“You can’t live a hundred percent moneyless, though, can you? I mean, what happens when you get your period, you go round to somebody and say, can I please borrow your used Tampax?”

Pauline laughs. “We have some money. Sometimes we work a season here and there, picking fruit, or painting someone’s house.”

“Or somebody’s great-aunt dies.”

“Even better if you have a technical skill—Dany’s an electrician.”

“I’m on unemployment. That takes skill!” jokes Julie.

“It all goes in the kitty.”

“My mom would love you guys,” Rat says. “She tries to live like that too, but she’s not so scientific about it.”

“You’re lucky,” says Dany. “Most of our parents are pretty pissed we’re using our graduate degrees not to earn money.”

“You guys have graduate degrees?”

“Oh, we have dozens. They’re totally addictive. It’s only after you have a degree in philosophy and a degree in sociology and a degree in economics that you realize all you really need to know in this world is electricity and plumbing.”

These kids are a lot friendlier than most twenty-something-year-olds Rat’s encountered. If you ask them questions, they answer readily. But they themselves ask no questions, exhibit no traces of an encumbering curiosity. And under the circumstances, Rat finds their discretion an exquisite form of courtesy.

After dinner, Rat fishes for advice.

“You guys move around a lot. Maybe you can tell me the cheapest way for me and my brother to get to England. How much do you think bus fare would be?”

Yannick considers. “Bus fare’s the least of your problems. Do you have papers?”

“Yeah, we both have passports.”

“That’s a good start. Mind if I ask how old you are?”

“Fifteen.”

“That’s not old enough.”

“For what?”

“To take a child out of France. Legally. That makes you both unaccompanied minors. That’s your problem.”

Rat’s heart has sunk. It’s never occurred to her that she and Morgan might not be allowed to leave France. For her, it was just a question of do we hitchhike to London, or do we take a bus.