Finally he made what might have been taken as an obscene gesture, but he did it in such an apologetic manner that she knew he wasn't trying to insult her. He touched and halfway squeezed his groin.

"The bathroom!" she exclaimed, catching on. "You have to use the -- " But she couldn't bring him to the house for that!

"Wait," she told him, and dashed back to the house. She dug out a big old rusty pot and brought it to the shed. "This."

She pantomimed sitting on it. She even made the whoopee noise.

He looked extremely doubtful. "No, I won't watch you!" she said, knowing he couldn't understand the words, but hop -- ing the sense of it came through. "I have to go to the house, there." She pointed to it. "So my folks won't know any -- thing's up. I'll try to check back on you, when I can. You just stay here." Then she stepped out, and closed the door on him.

She was just in time: her father's car was pulling into the drive. She hurried to the back door and in. She checked the kitchen to make sure that nothing there would give her away, then went to the front room to pick up her school books. But no, this was Friday, and she never did homework on Friday. She didn't want to arouse suspicion. She had to be perfectly normal. So she turned on the TV too loud and plumped down on the couch.

Her father came in. "Turn that thing down!" he snapped.

She grabbed the remote control and diminished the volume just enough to accede without quite ceasing to annoy him. He went on to his bedroom.

One down. One to go.

An hour later her father, clean, shaved, and neatly dressed, went out again. Colene stared at the TV, pretending not to notice. She didn't care about his date with his mistress, as long as he was discreet. Well, maybe deep down she did care, but that was worse than pointless: it only cut her up further. There was nothing she could do about it anyway. So it was safer not to care.

Fifteen minutes after that, her mother's car arrived. Colene remained before the TV.

Actually her mind was on the man in the shed; she wasn't paying any attention to the program. But she had to play her role, more so today than usual.

Her mother went straight to the kitchen, and Colene heard the first drink being poured.

Good; there would be no trouble from that quarter this evening.

She got up, leaving the TV on, and went to the kitchen. "I'll just take a snack out to the shed, okay?" she said, picking up some candy bars and raisins. She put tap water into a plastic bottle. Her mother, intent on hiding what could not be hidden, offered no objection.