An hour later, Carlos told me to follow him as he strides into Ms. Kaplan’s office, holding up a bakery box and a large coffee. “Hola, Ms. Kaplan. Look what I’ve brought you!” He flips open the top with flair, showing four plump jelly doughnuts. He’d gotten one of the kitchen staff to run down the block to get them—he made friends with her since she’s from his hometown. He sets down the coffee. “See, I got it just the way you like it. With skim milk.”

Ms. Kaplan looks up tiredly. “Carlos, what is it now?”

He pats me on the shoulder. “Look, Rania is an amazing student. She’s getting an award. Can’t you let her go to graduation?”

“No can do. I don’t have any staff to take her. Two of my vans are out for repair.”

Carlos beams. “Then I can be her escort. You can trust me. I will bring her back, one, two, three, quick.”

She laughs. “Carlos, you can’t be the escort!” But she does snap off the container lid and gratefully sip the coffee. “Let me see if I can find someone from another one of our facilities to take her.”

“And me!”

She tilts her head, laughing again. Carlos seems to find ways to move around the rules. But I don’t trust him completely. Even when he looks away for a second I see a sadness in his face. He’s got secrets tucked away, his eyes on the present.

But even Carlos can’t charm us out of here: a little while later, we’re in the rec room, and Ms. K pulls me aside and says she just couldn’t find anyone to take me to graduation. “I’m so sorry, Rania.”

I leap up from the sofa, rush into the corridor, kick a wall until I can’t anymore.

A brush against my arm. I look up to see Carlos, putting a finger to his lips, motioning me away. We go down a few halls, through the kitchen, where a cook grins at him and calls out in Spanish, and then out into the alley. There he shows me the fence and a broken lock. “This is how we get to your graduation.”

“This is nuts!”

“We’ll leave early, before the morning shift. Just take a few things.”

“What about Kamal?”

“Can he stay quiet?”

“Too quiet.”

I shift on my feet, uneasy. I’ve never done anything like this. But something in me doesn’t care. I have to get out of here. Go to graduation. “What about after?” I ask. “I can’t come back here.”

“You still want to find your uncle?”

I nod.

“That too. We’ll find him.”