“You talk strange.”

I looked at a spot on the floor. He was half my age so his criticism embarrassed me into silence. Lucky for me, he seemed content to do most of the talking—or, more accurately, whispering. We could hear the applause, soft laughter, and dings of a television program playing in the living room and Janet’s humming in the kitchen. By the clink of pots and pans, I guessed she was cooking. The aromas were light, smelling more like a garden than any food I recognized.

Shawna walked across the hall and, with feline ease, slipped past me, entered the bedroom, and slid onto a folding chair in the corner of the room. She wore her hair in two braids that just reached her shoulders and had on a lilac-colored dress with a hem of ivory lace.

“I sleep here,” she said. Her eyes flittered from the shaggy carpet to the quilts on the beds. Her eyes were round as coins, her cheekbones high and regal.

I spoke quietly. “This is bed for you?”

“You can have it if you want,” she offered meekly. “Or you can take the other one. I’m glad I’ll have a roommate. I’m not mad at all.”

I didn’t want either bed.

Shawna checked the ends of a braid, fanning the strands of hair as she watched me. Gabriel had entered by then and looked up at me with such unabashed curiosity that a red heat crept up my neck.

“How old are you?” Shawna asked.

“Twelve year old,” I replied, translating the age my sister would have been into English. Answering simple questions took extra time and effort, making me feel like I was moving through water.

“Oh, me too,” she said. “But I’ll be thirteen in two months.”

We hadn’t heard Janet tread up the stairs. She stood in the doorway, drying her hands on a towel and smiling brightly.

“Rayna,” she said, which I realized was her attempt at pronouncing my name, “you need a bath. Shawna, get her a towel and teach her how to properly wash up, please. She can’t join us for dinner like that.”

Janet was wrong about my name but right that I needed a bath. Still, I was terrified of getting undressed in this new house with strangers, even behind closed doors. I looked at Shawna, but she had pulled a towel out of a dresser drawer and was walking out of the room. Janet motioned for me to follow her.

Gabriel retreated to the room across the hallway, slipping past Janet without looking up at her. I took in every glance, every interaction. No one shouted or lashed out or threatened me. I could survive this, I thought, and soon Tilly would come for me. I wanted nothing more than to run into her arms.

Shawna turned the faucet on and let a stream of water bubble over her fingers and into the tub.