Today, it’s sunny and so warm all the snow is gone and we’ve put our coats away.

“Now remember what I said,” Mama says for the sixtieth time as she reties Dylan’s shoes for the hundredth time, “you mind Miss Alvarez the same way you’d mind me. I don’t want any reports of you disrespecting her, you hear?”

Dylan nods. Mama gently takes his thumb out of his mouth and kisses it. Which I think is gross.

Mama looks up at me. “Piper?”

“Yes, Mama,” I say. I’m really glad I don’t have to hang around all day in lines with Mama and Daddy. It’ll be fun to spend time with someone my own age.

Dylan asks for probably the 110th time, “You’ll come back, won’t you?” The thumb goes back in his mouth.

“Of course we’ll come back, baby,” she says. “We’ll only be gone a few hours.”

“But . . .”

Mama glances out the front doors of the lobby. Daddy’s out front, waiting.

“Come on,” Mama says, taking her purse and Dylan’s hand. “We need to get going.”

“You’re coming, aren’t you, Piper?” Dylan asks.

I ruffle his still-wet hair. “Course I am.”

Gabby and her brothers, Ricky and Luke, and their mom wait for us in the lobby. Luke is just a little thing. Gabby grins and Ricky jumps up and down. Luke hides behind his mama’s legs. He’s at that shy age.

“Thanks again,” Mama says, touching Miss Alvarez’s arm. “I promise to return the favor.”

Gabby’s mom nods. “You better believe it. It’s hard to interview for jobs when you’ve got kids tagging along.”

Mama gives us each a quick hug and, before Dylan can pitch a royal fit, she’s out the door.

“Let’s go, kids,” Miss Alvarez says.

We hustle out into the bright sunshine. I hear the door to the shelter lock behind us. I look back. Miss Jean waves and mouths, “See you later.” We’ve been here six days and I still feel a little panic when I hear that door lock.

I trot along beside Gabby as we head away from the shelter. “I don’t get why they make everyone leave all day,” I say.

Miss Alvarez looks back at me and shakes her head. “They think if they don’t, no one will go out and look for jobs. No one will try to ‘improve their situation,’” she says, crooking her fingers into quotation marks. “We’ll just hang around there all day and watch TV, eat bonbons, and paint our toenails.”

Gabby giggles. “We paint our toenails at night.”