It was just a lot of buildings plopped down on a huge property facing toward Ticonderoga Bay, with a little cliff dropping down to the beach.

There were five two-story blocks with railings and staircases along their sides, which Luca said were the barracks. Shower and toilet blocks were way off in the distance, and then a lot of squat huts. Luca said the low houses with chimneys were administration buildings, and we had to go there to sign in.

A sour-faced man asked Luca a bunch of questions about what we’d be doing, and insisted we sign our names on a clipboard—and then Jed and Khoa came through the door, and Luca had to explain it all again.

While Jed and Khoa signed in, I tugged on Luca’s arm.

“What, Freddo?” he huffed.

“Can we look around?” I whispered, and blushed when the sour-faced man seemed to narrow his eyes at me.

Luca nodded once. “But don’t go far, and be back here in fifteen minutes, tops!”

Jed, Sam, and I burst through the door and ran to the middle of a great expanse of grass. The winds off the bay pummeled our cheeks, whipped my hair around my head, and made my teeth chatter.

“What is this place?” Jed asked, and then we all turned in circles to get a good look at everything.

There were refugees leaning on the railings of one of the barracks. We knew they were refugees because they were all different ages and weren’t wearing the volunteer vests. They looked down at us curiously and we waved. It was too cold to be outside, and we figured that was probably why the place seemed to be deserted.

“This way?” Jed asked, and pointed to one of the two-story barracks buildings. Sam and I didn’t say anything; we just followed him.

We’d only taken a few steps when Merjeme appeared. She burst through the door of one of the low buildings behind us and ran full pelt at us.

“Umm—should we be scared?” Jed whispered, and Sam laughed.

“Hello, hello, hello, hello!” she started babbling when she got to us.

“Çkemi,” I said, remembering how Nora had pronounced it. Jed and Sam turned to look at me in amazement.

Merjeme clapped once. “Well done, very good!” she said, her accent thick and her voice delighted.

She took my hand and started pulling me toward another barracks building. I turned my head to see Sam and Jed shrug at me and begin to follow.

“You come, you come,” Merjeme said when we got to the bottom of the staircase that ran down one side of the two-story building, leading to the balcony. And then she was racing up and the metal stairs clunked and clanged with her tread.

Jed put his hands on the railing and gave it a shake, then gulped a little at the way it gently swayed.