“She’s doing great now though.” Bea smiled at Merilee.

“Bea could give you a lesson,” Mirabelle offered, looking at me.

“No, thank you. I don’t think I’d be any good at it,” I replied in the politest voice I could muster.

“You know they filmed South Pacific not far from here. Bali Hai? That’s the beach at the end of the road,” my mother said.

“Mom loves that movie,” Mirabelle said.

“Bali Hai!” Bea and Merilee sang together.

My little sister shook her head. “It’s so embarrassing.”

“You have to see the sunset there,” Merilee said. “If I could live anywhere in the world it would have a view of Bali Hai.”

After dinner, Merilee cleared the table while Bea and Mirabelle washed dishes and swayed their hips like hula dancers to an Island band on the radio. I had never cared for the slide guitar and warbled harmonies of Hawaiian music, but with the warm breeze blowing through the open doors, the distant waves, and the floral-scented air, it almost sounded beautiful.

Merilee put a practically empty bottle of mango-papaya juice in the fridge, wiped the counter, and handed me a dishtowel. “Bea is our roomie. The rents are so high here it’s the only way we can afford a nice place.”

“You can sleep in my room,” Mirabelle said shyly, handing me a wet coffee cup.

“We borrowed a foldaway.” Merilee took the cup from me and put it back in the sink in front of Bea. “You missed a spot.”

“Sorreee,” Bea said rolling her eyes. She whipped a towel at my mother who scooted away playfully.

“Unless you’d rather sleep with me, Jaqueline?” My mother offered.

“Huh?” The question set off an eruption of feelings. I’d slept with my mother only once that I could remember when I was four or five. Anna was off and Daddy was away somewhere on location. I’d woken with a nightmare, gone to my parent’s room, and snuggled up next to her. She got up, went to the bathroom, vomited, then stumbled back to bed. I doubt she knew I was there.

“Would you like to sleep with me?” My mother pressed. “I have a king-size mattress.”

If I answered, I would say something terrible, something none of us would recover from.

“I’ll be outside.” I grabbed the cigarettes out of my jacket. “I can sleep in her room,” I said, pointing to Mirabelle on my way out the door.

“Yay!” Mirabelle clapped her hands together as if she’d won the prize.

The next morning when I woke up, Merilee and Bea were gone. I got my cigarettes and went outside in my pajamas. I’d survived the first day. All I had to do was make it through six more.

When I came back, Mirabelle was sitting at the kitchen counter eating papaya and some kind of sticky-looking cereal.

“Where is everyone?” I asked.