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“So I was one,” he said “Helped with Filipito Took care”

“Goo

d”

“No,” Karal said “Before that Sometimes, he ith me”

Nao not to remember those desperate days after she’d told Marco she was leaving The days after he’d taken Filip To keep the boy safe, he’d said Until she got her emotions under control, he’d said A knot filled her throat, but she smiled past it

“Those days You had him?”

“Ihts there”

Her baby passed around a the people she knew Thehis child as a marker of howher as the crazed one The dangerous one Making sure the story in their community was about how solid he was and how close to cracked she’d co in from the kitchen while she broke down in his wife’s arms Souja, her name had been What must her tears and profanity have looked like to him then?

“Kept it quiet,” Naomi said, “and I wouldn’t have known So why say it here?”

Karal’s hands shrugged again “New day New start Looking to scrape off some old rust”

She tried to read from his face whether that was true, or if this was just another little cruelty in a for like the crazy one If it had been back on the Roci, she would have known But here, now, the balance between fear and anger and trying to control herself swas like truth It was the beauty of the way Marco had set her against herself Tell her she was broken as a way to break her, and here they were a decade and a half past, and it still worked

Then, for a er in hership It don’t matter what’s inside, boss They only care what you do She didn’t know if it was afor a place of certainty in an environ could be relied upon

If Amos has becoht, and laughed Karal ventured a smile

“Thank you for telling it straight,” Naomi said “New start Scrape off the rust”

And if I ever get the chance to leave you behind in a fire, Karal, then good God you will burn