I was grateful for Lee by my side. Now that I knew about the chains and rings, I felt the nakedness of my wrists and neck and fingers. Even though I told myself I was fine, that I had only been there for a few weeks, I was still ashamed. I found myself placing my hands in my lap whenever I wasn’t using my fork and knife. I let my hair fall over my neck to hide its bareness.

“Mila made the butter tonight,” Liz said.

“You did!” Julia said. “It’s delicious.”

I nodded, but wanted their eyes off me, however friendly their expressions, however innocuous their attention. All I could think was, Look at Mila. The one who knows nothing. The one who isn’t one of us. I felt my hand take hold of Lee’s under the table. He smiled at me and squeezed mine back. At least I had him. At least there were two of us.

___

Later, after we’d cleared the dishes and the high schoolers had taken their stations to wash and dry, I found Lee in the living room, looking out the dark window.

“What’s up, buddy?” I asked him.

“It’s my ghost. He’s making mean faces.”

As soon as I looked toward the window, the ghost turned and darted away. It was much smaller than Lee was. If it were human, it could not have been more than five years old.

“Lee, what do you mean, your ghost?”

He turned to me, as though surprised. As though he hadn’t realized he was speaking to me at all. “Oh,” he said. “It just . . . follows me. I think it likes me.”

I rumpled his hair. “Well, I don’t blame it. Who wouldn’t like you?”

He tried to smile, but he was blinking tears away, turning his face so that I couldn’t see it.

“Can I read you a story?” I offered, but he shook his head.

“I think I’ll just go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

He gave me a quick hug and climbed the stairs.

____________

A few days later, Lee and I were alone in the schoolhouse. Billy had the little ones out on a nature walk and, because Terry and Julia were away meeting Ruby and Diamond—the twins who would soon be coming to live with us—the high schoolers had persuaded Liz to hold class in the living room.

We’d finished math and reading and now it was time for art. Together, we were learning about one-point perspective from a book.