“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I used to come and sleep in here sometimes,” she said, “when you were gone. Lex caught me once and got mad. Don’t tell her, okay? She wanted me to stay in her room with her, but she kicks in her sleep.”
I swallowed. “Why did she want you to sleep with her?”
“She said she didn’t want me to bother you by accident if I got up in the middle of the night,” she said. “Sometimes I wake up at night, and Magda used to help me go back to sleep, but she went home to Ukraine a few days ago.”
“Magda was your nanny?” I asked.
She nodded. “Lex said I could only sleep in my room if I stayed inside and kept the door locked so I wouldn’t bother anyone. I don’t want her to know I broke my promise.”
“I won’t tell,” I said. Was Lex worried her damaged, potentially destructive little brother might do something to Mia? It was a reasonable thought, but one that seemed at odds with the way she’d been treating me.
“Thanks, Danny,” Mia said. “Did you sleep good?”
“I . . . not really,” I said. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to talk to a kid this young. She was like a little alien creature to me.
“It’s always weird being in a new bed,” she said. “That’s why I bring my pillow with me anytime we go on a trip, so the bed isn’t totally new.”
I smiled. “That’s pretty smart.”
“Well, tonight your bed won’t be new anymore,” she said, “so hopefully, you’ll sleep better.” She climbed awkwardly out of the bed. I wondered again about the brace on her leg. It had pins that went into her skin. Had she gotten hurt, or was it some kind of disability she’d been born with? If the problem with her leg was something Danny had known about, it would be suspicious if I asked, but if Danny hadn’t known, it would be suspicious if I didn’t.
“I better go back to my room before Lex wakes up,” she said, and then she leaned toward me and wrapped her thin little arms around my neck, squeezing me with so much passion I could hardly breathe.
“I really missed you, Danny,” she said. And she sounded like she meant it, even though she couldn’t possibly remember the brother who’d disappeared when she was just a toddler.
I raised a hand to her back and gave it a couple of awkward pats. “Missed you, too.”
? ? ?
Mia returned to her room, and I brushed my teeth and changed into my one set of clean clothes before heading downstairs. Nicholas was in the kitchen, his wet hair looking almost black and dampening the collar of his shirt. He was pouring glasses of orange juice, and there was already a plate of toast on the table in the breakfast nook.
“Morning,” he said when I walked in.
I tried to smile like I thought I should. “Morning.”
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
I looked at him closely. The question sounded almost too innocent coming from him, like he was daring me to ask why I had woken in the middle of the night to find him standing over my bed like some creepy fucking wraith.
But it was possible I was being paranoid.
“Fine,” I said.
“Great,” he replied, turning back to the fruit he was cutting. “Have a seat. Breakfast is almost ready.”
As I took a seat at the table, Mia came bounding in and sat across from me. I sipped my orange juice while she slathered a piece of toast with raspberry jam. Nicholas had a cordless phone on the counter beside him, and when it began to ring, he hit a button and it went silent.
“So what’s on the agenda today, Mimi?” he said.
“I don’t know. I was supposed to go to Eleanor’s house,” Mia said, “but Magda was going to take me.”
“I can take you,” Nicholas said. “What are you two going to do?”
“Work on our play,” she said around a mouthful of toast.
“You have a play?” I asked while I wondered why Magda had left with such apparent abruptness.
Mia nodded and licked some stray jam off her finger. “We’ve been working on it for a long time. It’s about a mermaid with magical powers. I play the mermaid, because I want to be an actress someday.”
“Acting’s pretty cool,” I said. “Getting to pretend to be another person.”
“Yeah, I’m really good at it. Eleanor does the costumes.”
“Does she want to be a fashion designer?” I asked. It turned out the kid was actually pretty easy to talk to.
“Not really,” she said. “She’s just not a very good actress, and she needed something to do.”
I started to laugh but stopped when Nicholas approached us, balancing several plates in his arms. He set a raisin bagel with cream cheese and honey down in front of Mia and a bowl of cornflakes with freshly cut strawberries in front of me.
“I decided to make everyone their favorite for breakfast today,” he said with a smile, “in honor of Danny being home.”
“Thanks, Nicky!” Mia said, pushing aside her toast in favor of the bagel. “What about Mom’s?”
Nicholas sat down beside her with his plate of scrambled eggs and took the uneaten half of Mia’s raspberry toast. “I don’t think she’ll be down for a while. Eat up, before it gets cold.”
Something seemed different about him. I frowned as I tried to put my finger on it, and he noticed.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
I shook my head. Behind him Lex walked into the kitchen, rubbing her head and making straight for the coffee maker.
“Morning, guys,” she mumbled.
“Morning,” we all replied.
I raised a spoonful of cereal to my mouth, and suddenly Lex was sprinting across the kitchen and knocking it from my hand.
“Danny!” she snapped. “Don’t touch that! Who gave him strawberries?”
“I did,” Nicholas said.
“He’s allergic!” she said. “What were you thinking?”
Nicholas looked at her and then me with wide eyes. “I’m so sorry, Danny. I completely forgot.”
The air was thick with tension. Nicholas stared at me and I stared back, and in my peripheral vision I saw Lex clench her hands into fists.
Then she sighed, and the room seemed to exhale with her. “Well, there’s no harm done,” she said. “I’ll make you something else to eat, Danny. What would you like?”
She took the bowl of cereal away, pouring it down the drain, while I looked at Nicholas, who just stared back at me. Did he suspect?
“Did you forget too?” he asked.
I nodded slowly and started my eyes watering. I’d always been able to make myself cry whenever I wanted. It was a useful trick.
“I guess . . . ,” I said. “It’s been so long since I’ve had fresh fruit that . . .”
Nicholas’s stony expression wavered.
“Oh, honey . . . ,” Lex said.
“I’m sorry.” I got up from the table. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to . . .”
I fled the kitchen. Behind me, I heard Lex going off on Nicholas and him apologizing, and I smiled.
? ? ?
I was holed up in Danny’s bedroom for maybe ten minutes before a soft rap on the door signaled that Lex had come to find me.
I curled into the most pathetic ball I could manage on top of the bed. “Come in.”