We drove out into the dark countryside and then up a long tree-lined drive to a big house. As we drew nearer I turned and watched my mother look at the house suspiciously as though she were moving forward in water step by step, testing the bottom each time. The truck drove around to the back of the house and stopped. Pedro and the driver helped us off. We each carried a bag as we set off in the darkness across a field toward a cluster of small lights in the distance. My mother had to watch each step because of her shoes. She spoke English all the time, but Matilda spoke only Spanish; Pedro did not speak at all.

Eventually, we came to the door of a small wooden cottage with a tin roof. We walked straight into a kind of kitchen. There was a tall unshaven man, Aunt Matilda’s husband, sitting on a chair. He spoke to his wife without acknowledging our presence. I noticed my mother’s clothes, how fancy they seemed now, and her makeup and the comb in her hair. My uncle stood up and nodded at us. He took a lantern from over the door and lit it. I looked around the room, wondering if there was another kitchen. I could see no fridge, and no sink with taps, although there was a small, old-fashioned range in the corner. My uncle told us to follow him out with our bags. We walked around the back of the house until we came to a shed with a door and a window. He pushed open the door; there was no handle or lock. Inside there was an old iron bed made up and ready for someone to sleep in, and a smaller camp bed beside it. The floor was plain concrete. There was a table with a basin on it and some soap beside the basin. My uncle showed my mother where the toilet was, handed her the lantern, and then left us there, closing the door behind him.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning,” my mother said. “It might be better if we went to sleep now.”

She handed me my pajamas from the top of a bag and then brought me outside by the light of the lantern and showed me the small shed where the toilet was. I said nothing. I knew that there was no need for me to speak.

When I woke in the morning her bed was empty. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but I wanted to go to the toilet and knew that I would have to get up and dress myself. I did not know what time it was. In the dusty light of the room, things looked even shabbier than they had looked the night before.