I looked over at the lady, but she wasn’t paying attention to me—her eyes were glued to the TV.

Anika snapped at Sam, “Keep watch! Stall the security guard if you see him!”

I walked toward the lady. The blankets were kicked off and pushed down around her, and she was wearing only her long white hospital gown, which stretched tight over her belly.

Her skin was olive, darker than Luca’s, which Mom used to say was “Mediterranean.” She was a grown-up, and maybe even the same age as Anika, but I couldn’t really tell. What I did notice was how being scared made her seem so much younger, and how strange it was to see an adult look so lost.

Anika had said her name was Nora, so when I got to her bed that’s the name I said—quietly at first and then a little louder to be heard above the sound of a TV ad.

Her eyes—wide, tear-filled, and the color of milk chocolate—stayed fixed on the TV.

“Mirëdita,” I said, trying to remember the way Merjeme had said the word for hello the other day.

And then I got an idea.

I reached a hand out slowly and placed it lightly on Nora’s shoulder—she jumped a little but still wouldn’t look at me, not until I very seriously said, “Eat my shorts.”

She turned her head then and blinked at me, and I smiled back—a little sheepishly—and shrugged.

“The nurse is back, she’s got a man with her!” Sam said from the doorway.

I took my hand off her shoulder and put it out, palm up. “Please.”

She blinked at me again, and I thought I could see her realizing she recognized me from the atrium.

“We’ll keep it on, I promise!” I said.

She looked down at the remote and placed it gently into my outstretched palm, and then seemed to sag against the pillows behind her.

I quickly aimed the remote at the TV and turned the volume down.

“Give it here!” Anika said, and I spun around to hand it to her. “Close the curtain,” she added, and I did just that, hiding Nora just as the nurse and a tall security guard walked into the hushed room.

Anika pushed her glasses up her nose and held the remote control up triumphantly. “All sorted, as you can see!”

The nurse stuck her hands on her hips and harrumphed, while Sam stood smirking behind her.

When she and the guard left, Anika gave a sigh of relief and leaned back against her own pillows.

“Us pregnant ladies have to stick together, isn’t that right, Nora?” She looked over at the curtain, but there was only silence and stillness from that side of the room.

“Mom . . . ?” Sam started to ask.

“Let’s leave her be,” Anika said to me, and then she motioned us back closer to her bed.