ENA sat in the backseat with Merci, whose head was wrapped in gauze, and thought that he couldn’t have been more wrong. Mama said that he had a concussion from when Papa beat him up. ENA wasn't there for that first part, but she sure as shit was there for the second part, that ultimately concluded with Mama driving and Papa sitting in the passenger's seat because he had no arms anymore.

She decided that was the best option when she had seen Merci’s body lying on the ground. Not that she took the time to consider any others, it was more like ad-libbing, starting with all practical sense being forsaken for a wave of blind anger. It took her into the air, flying like a kestrel, aiming for one spot square in the center of Papa's chest. When he moved to block, she reoriented and took his arm off in a single bat of her hand. The appendage was tossed like a stick, landing several meters away. Unsatisfied, she went back for the other arm, Papa now unable to block her save for a single kick with his leg that she was easily able to duck under. When the second limb hit the ground and she found herself having to stop to breathe, she began to think again.

The pike! suggested someone in her head. Good idea, she thought back to it. Thank you. The plan was simple and affective, she took both arms and brought them to the stone-walled room, which was not far away from where Papa was, having returned to the picnic spot to wait for his son to confront him about false parentage and years denying paternal responsibility. Which, if it wasn’t for her brother, she wouldn’t have batted an eye to. Irresponsible fathers exist, she saw them on T.V. all the time. Knowing that it affected Merci, that Papa deflected his confrontation by beating his lights out, that was what made her so completely apoplectic.

She fetched the pike and stuck one arm onto each end, the hands dangling. From there, they easily ignited in the stove, from where she took the show outside. The twirled the stick like a baton, creating a ring of smoking, stinking light as the arms burned up. After performing a couple of neat tricks tossing the pike into the air and catching it mid-flip, Mama told her to give Papa back his arms. She had come out to see what was going on, having been told that Papa had been dismembered by his daughter who was overcome with a spell of rage.

Because it was Mama, ENA did as she said and returned the arms. She said nothing of the pike, however, so ENA arranged it so he looked like a scarecrow. Despite all his Khet, his arms were still crispy and the nerves were melted, so they had to be thrown out. His parents gave him new ones that he would attach to his useless torso when they got home.

ENA felt proud of herself, because Papa hurt Merci, and made him sad.

He was still sad, even after Papa was pulled into pieces. ENA sat on the other side of the car, feeling restless and uncomfortable. She was belted down like a prisoner, or more literally, a teenager in a modified kid’s carseat. She’d say she was both. Mama said that it was to keep her from jumping out of the fast-moving vehicle and killing herself. She had only jumped once before, at it wasn't even on a seventy it was on a fifty, and she only got a broken arm, three cracked ribs, and a bruised liver. They thought it was worth it, and when parents make up their minds like that, there’s no changing them, especially when even ENA herself couldn’t have promised that she wouldn’t jump again.

She tugged on her seatbelts and squirmed, unable to find a good position. There was no radio to distract her, it might have exacerbated Merci’s headache. She couldn’t even watch a movie on the tablet because of Merci’s concussion, the screens would hurt his brain. She didn’t blame him, but that left her alone in her mind, which sucked, because all she could think about was saying goodbye to Aunt Wolf and Mister Kori, who apologized for the trouble even though it wasn't their fault.

"Keep your chin up, help others, and don't give up. I'm sorry about my brother, someday we'll get out of this mess. It'll start with you, when you find peace in yourself, grow up, and become great." Loucara had hugged her before they got in the car.

Mister Kori had been lecturing Papa, who sat on a stool while he had his arm-holes sealed up. When he said his good-bye it was more of an apology, "I shouldn't have said anything, I thought he already told you, I didn't mean to mess things up for you, and I didn't want our first meeting to go like this. I'm not part of this family, so I can't represent them, but I don't blame you if you want to stay far away from here in the future."

She wasn't about to say it out loud, but she thought it. The more they stay away from the Sheffield house, the easier she could live her life. She only started to feel the pressure of the past couple days when watching out the window at all the trees they passed by. The sheer amount and size of the change she had gone through, and was about to begin, was overwhelming already. Wanting to do anything to distract herself from the feeling of impending disaster, she thought about how she could cheer Merci up.

She looked to her right. He rested his cheek on his palm. His legs were up on the seat. ENA kicked hers where they barely touched the floor. "Merci? Does your head still hurt?" She asked quietly just in case it did.

"Yes." He mumbled, not moving.

"Oh. Do you want a hug?"

"No."

She stopped talking and went back to playing with her seatbelt and the inside of the cupholder. She already drank all of her water and didn't know any car games for one. She couldn't reach Merci anyway, but the rejection still hurt. Hugging usually helped her feel better, so she thought it would help him. He didn't elaborate either, so she just had to guess. It was a relief when they reached a rest stop to gas up, giving her more options than sitting and wondering what she did wrong and why nothing she did ever helped anyone.

ENA had been considering a plan involving cheap snacks and gas station presents when her door was opened. Mama unbuckled ENA, pulled her out of the car and handed her the money card. "You're going to pump the gas. You took Papa's arms, so you're going to do Papa's jobs."

On the one hand, she was happy to stretch her legs and be in a new place. On the other... "I don't know how to pump petrol."

"Then today you will learn." Mama's temper was short now, so ENA didn't argue and did as she was told.

"Mama?" She asked when she stuck the gas pump into the hole in the side of the car.

"What is it?" Mama watched the meter and directed ENA to do the same. The numbers climbed rapidly. Two dollars, three dollars, four. They'd change currency when they passed from the human populated part of the world to the lesser traveled, then, into 'no man's land' where ENA and her family lived.

"How do I fix Merci? He's sad, and I want him to not be sad. You're good at making me not sad, and so is he, but he's got a hurt head so he can't help make him not sad, so you have to help me do that for him."

Mama stopped looking at the pump's screen to meet ENA's eyes. She patted her child on the head. "I think the only thing that can do that is the thing that hurt him."

"Me?"

"Your father."

She nodded, beginning to accept that there was nothing she could do when she caught something. "Hey, Mama? Papa's not a thing."

Mama snorted. "Right now he is."

What? She would have asked, but Mama ushered her back into the car. "Nevermind it, just get in. Merci, honey, I'm going to get you something for your head, okay? Some ice and pain medicine. Do you want anything else? Ena can help Papa with the toilet if you want some time alone."

"Hey, I never said I'd do that!"

"Hush, you'll do as I say when I say it."

Merci shook his head. When he talked, his voice was chokey. "I'm fine. She shouldn't be alone with that guy anyway. Come here, Ena. You wanted a hug?" He held out his arms, and ENA practically jumped into the car and squeezed in next to her favorite person and best brother, easily finding a place tucked in under his arm. She didn't hear what Mama said before she shut the car door, going around to help Papa out. As soon as they left, Merci opened up. "I don't even know if he really liked me all those years. He came back when I was young, but not for me, or Mama. He didn't write or call or anything. Who says that he even likes me now? He hit me twice, and he’s never done that. Up until this point was it all just for show?" ENA, ear to his chest, heard his heart beating fast and felt his breaths come shaky. "Does Mama even like me when I'm not really her son? Or is she pretending too?"

She was up before he started crying. It felt bizarre to have their roles swapped after all this time. Even that time in the Sheffield house, he kept some composure, and ENA was just spacey enough to not understand the full situation. Here, he sobbed with powerful emotion, wailing like a baby. Or, a good impression of his sister. "It's okay, please don't cry! I like you, Merci! I love you, I love you a lot, for both Mama and Papa!" That didn't help, and desperate to find a way to make him stop hurting, she grabbed up his phone, unlocked the screen and pulled up a photo. "Look, Merci! It's the one you took of me in the grocery store, when I was on the floor! I was crying because I thought that I was alone forever, isn't that funny? Isn't it?" It really wasn't funny at the time, but he laughed, so she thought he'd laugh again. He didn't even look up.

"Ena, I don't know what to do! I wish I never found out! I don't want my Mama to hate me, or my Papa! Why did it have to be like this, why?" He rubbed his eyes with his hands, reaching up underneath his mask. ENA didn't know what to do either and felt completely at a loss. The only option she had left was silly, but her brother needed her to try anything at all, even the silliest thing.

Changing their positions, she sat up on her knees so that she was a little taller. Putting his head to her shoulder, she thought up the words, cleared her throat, and prayed that the anxiety that gave her the shivers wouldn't affect her voice. To test, she hummed a little bit, a simple but memorable tune that repeated every five or so notes. It wasn't much, and it even deepened his weeping. He held on tight to her, and she gave her voice the dedication she had to her brother, thinking of the lyrics as she went,

My dear, Merci

tormented by the remnants of memory

come close to me, and rest your heart

from the hurt that it's felt recently

In mine, I feel

the steady bond between those of family

no matter what they say to us

there's nothing that will change the way I see you as my brother first and only

When sadness rules

and God will pour you salt

I'll be right there to carry you

to safety

beyond those memories.

It was a simple ditty, and a lot of the lyrics came directly from poems and books she read, but its effect was just what ENA wanted. Merci drowsily leaned against her, kind of heavy but not unbearably. "Look at you two." Mama crooned when she came back, setting the ice down on the center console and opening the package of pills. She handed two of these and a bottle of red juice to Merci, who took them without removing himself from his sister's arms. "Thank you for helping, Ena. Would you like an orange creamsicle?"

"Yes. I think Merci would like one, too." She maneuvered to hold the popsicle in her hand and not drip onto the floor or her brother's head. "He's appreciate it if you thought of him, or went back to get him something nice."

"Something nice would be you leaving the mothering to the mother and the sistering to the sister, alright?" She reached out to squeeze ENA's arm, making the girl smile, before she addressed her son, taking his hand into her big, yellow claw. "Mercy, honey." She said, and there was a brief silence between the three of them as Mama silently read the state of the situation. "Enakai, could you go help your Papa? I left him at the counter."

She didn't really want to leave such a heavy atmosphere and felt very uncomfortable being alone. She tried telling herself that Merci would be fine when he was with Mama. "Yessum." She crawled out of the car, careful of her popsicle and the doorway. "Will you be okay?"

Mama didn't look at her. Merci had started crying again. "We'll be fine...oh, baby, come here." She hugged her son, and now feeling quite useless, ENA looked to her left, to her right, and hurried to the front door.

She easily found Papa standing at the counter and staring at a cup of coffee, a line forming behind him. Being an excellent daughter, ENA volunteered to carry it for him. Not without taking a couple mouthfuls. "Thank you much, ma'am." She said, holding the door open as Papa slipped through. "Right this way, to the lady and the little boy. That poor child, someone hurt him quite a bit. Whoever did it deserves something awful to happen to them-ah! Hey, what gives?!"

Like a freaky chicken, Papa ducked his head down and pecked ENA's popsicle, grabbing the whole thing and swallowing it down, spitting the stick out into a conveniently place garbage can. "You, for taking my lifeline."

"You dirty cheat! I aughta take off your legs, too!" She would have done it if Mama hadn't called them back to the car so they could get going. It did get Merci to laugh, so she didn't feel all that bad as they pulled away from the gas station.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence, where everyone save for Mama got to sleep. It took a long time to get home, and the moons chatting up in the sky at peak night. Seeing the quarry in the distance and a rain rock in the sky, ENA felt bone-tired. Just before they arrived, it was discussed that she would right away be attaching Papa's new limbs. She would sooner eat breakfast and go to sleep, she still had to attend school the next day, but Mama was unwavering and heartless. "Enakai Nakamura, you will do as I say or you'll be tossed into a sun."

She grumbled as she was taken out of her seat and brought to the trunk to retrieve the limb tote. Not only did she have to carry it inside, but she had to unlock the front door. Mama was holding Merci, who had been asleep, and she felt like carrying her boy. While this was nice to see, it didn't mean that ENA wasn't jealous, especially when Mama made him a cup of sweet milk and took him to sleep in her bed. ENA had to stay with Papa and do stupid Khet. She hardly even had time for a wee, which Mama helped Papa with while ENA pulled up a couple chairs in the kitchen.

"You should appreciate the opportunity to practice healing." He said obnoxiously, taking a seat while ENA pulled on some plastic gloves and removed the first arm. "I'll walk you through it. Start with bringing it out, and we'll go from there. To do that, you just have to go by feeling. Think about what it might be like if you could move things with your mind, it's like flexing, but inside."

She flexed but inside, and Papa had that look on his face that she really didn't appreciate. It was a look of reverence, and it was too much for a power that she didn't even like. "Enakai, do you know what you look like?"

"Stupid." She said, holding the arm up and pulling out the thumb to see if it was the left or right hand. She really didn't care but knew that if she applied it wrong she'd have to go back and fix it, and she didn't want to spend any more time with him than was needed.

Papa let her work, lining up the seams to be sewn together with Khet. He turned his head to watch closer. The skin was dark, where the arm and the stump connected, showing that he was using his own power to assist her. "I would have done the same thing, if someone had done that to my brother. If I had been watching me, I wouldn't have let me live."

ENA glared at him, purposely yanking the arm back when it was half-attached. His blinked lazily, but otherwise, he didn’t display any tell that he was in pain. "Loufrere's not here. Merci is. He's your son, your only son, why did you tell him that you weren't his father? Why did you leave him and Mama for so long? Why do I even exist if you don’t like either of them?"

Papa looked past her, then away. ENA continued attaching his arms hoping that the silence would end, but it didn't, until he thanked her when she was finished. "You can do what you like now." He pulled out a single fatty-catty from his pocket and handed it to ENA before he left, going up the stairs, presumably to lock himself in his study.

ENA went to her room to hide the fatty-catty in a slotted bank, shaped like the bank in town. She didn't feel the best about how she got it, but she wasn't going to question having earned good money. Papa could keep his excuses to himself. It would have been nice to know that he felt even a little bad about what he did, and keeping it from them for so long, but he wasn't the kind of person to do that. At least he was going back to his usual routine of staying in his room, which mean that maybe things could return to normal. She hadn't had an episode yet, which she was proud of herself for. Mrs. Sad and Mr. Happy were very quiet, almost suspiciously. Maybe the soul's manipulations had their upsides, even if she wasn't going to let anyone else know she thought that.

Not tired anymore, she went back downstairs to make herself supper. Since Mama was with Merci and Papa wasn't going to come back out for the rest of the night, she decided that supper would be a small microwave meal and a bowl of ice cream. She sat on the couch in the living room instead of at the dinner table, planning to watch T.V., but nothing good was on, just those boring commercials for jewelry or walkway vacuums or hazardous household chemicals sold by a charismatic cryptid man. Just she thought about putting on a DVD, the wall clock chimed four, and excitement raced her heart as she remembered. "Bad guys!" Channel 66, from three to four thirty in the morning! Then it was a half hour for the surgery show, and then the kids channel 'woke up' for the day. Jamming the buttons on the remote, she sat back and grinned as she entered the episode, watching rookie Lieutenant Ula chase a crazy night-owl teen after finding him trespassing on the school's playground. ENA laughed when they caught the teen, and the cameraman focused on his bewildered expression. He shook his head disappointedly when he entered the car, and Lieutenant Ula lectured the audience about what happens to bad guys who aren't good at breaking into private property. "They come for him." She said, taking another spoonful of ice cream as she nodded her head to the theme.

It was during the second commercial break that ENA remembered something else important. She gently set down her empty ice-cream bowl and looked toward the stairs. Mama hadn't come down yet. She might have gone to sleep. ENA had to make sure, Mama would have a whole cow if she came downstairs and caught ENA doing something she really wasn't supposed to do. Papa wasn't a problem, but Mama was another story.

Avoiding the squeakiest parts of the stairs, she crept up and towards her parents’ room, where she started to hear Mama's voice. Rats! Why was she still awake? She wondered if she could get away with it anyway, but just out of curiosity, she decided to have a listen to what Mama was saying.

The door was still open just a crack. The hall lights were off, which didn't give ENA a shadow to betray her.

Mama sat leaning over her son, her hand stroking his shoulders. He looked to be asleep. ENA didn't notice it at first and was taken back when she realized that Mama was crying, just quiet enough so that ENA wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been listening so attentively. She reached up to wipe her eyes under her mask, hiccupping a couple times. She mumbled something that ENA couldn't understand but didn't need to hear. It hurt enough when Merci was sad but seeing Mama sad felt almost as bad as the pike, cutting straight through her heart this time. "Oh, my son, my only son." Mama wept quietly, startling ENA into backing out of the door. She barely caught it, running away just as Mama said, "I promise I will never, ever leave you."

It was too much to hear. It hurt too badly to stay, or to confront Mama about it. She hid in the bathroom, hiding behind the toilet and crying as inconspicuously as she could. There was Mrs. Sad. She wasn't gone after all, just better at hiding. ENA must have spent a whole hour wallowing. Through the window, the outside light grew brighter by the minute. It was grey out when she heard footsteps. When they didn't reach the bathroom, she pulled herself together and crawled across the floor to see who it was.

Mama left earlier. Papa was standing outside of his bedroom door, where he remained, and ENA remained spying on him, for a long time before he entered. Feeling an aggressive spark in her soul, ENA, quiet as a mouse, slipped out into the hallway and positioned herself just outside of the door where she could overhear whatever Papa said or did, and not be found out. If Merci needed her help, she had her Khet at the ready to strike again, and this time, she'd take more than Papa's arms. Attacking his own son while he was asleep, the cowardice, the nerve!

She hung out there, waiting for something to happen that never did. Once in a while she’d think she heard him humming a tune, before it was gone. Then, he sat down in a chair in the corner, picking up a book and opening it to a marked page. The book was ‘the proper man’s guide to business economics.’

ENA got up and went downstairs, having made up her mind. The school wouldn't care if she came in smelling like booze. They never cared about her anyway. She walked into the kitchen, hearing one of the kids' shows musical jingle as she brought the stool out from under the sink. Before climbing up to the highest cabinet, she fetched a pin from a container of odds and ends, easily unlocking the liquor cabinet and removing the bottle of gin. It sloshed in her hands as she stepped down and set it on the counter, going to get a glass. She wasn't going to bother with diluting or mixing it, she didn't have the time. She'd have to get ready for school in another hour, and she wasn't even ready for being alive yet.

She was onto a second glass, feeling warm and tipsy, when Papa came in. His face returned to the normal black and white compared to the strange human pinkish he was while visiting the Sheffields. He didn't pause or show off, walking in, grabbing the bottle of gin, and tilting it back. Once finished, he turned to his daughter on the floor leaning against the stove. He gestured to her with the bottle. "Don't you ever leave me. Promise me that you won't leave me."

ENA, feeling ill again, could only nod. "Okay, Papa."

She couldn't tell if going to school was breaking the promise, which would be the fastest promise she'd ever broken to that date. Merci was staying home so he could recover from his injuries. ENA wasn't sure that she could do it without him, but knew that she had to, so she left alone. Papa, before she went, gave her a water bottle and some pain relief capsules, as well as the bottle of medicine. He said nothing throughout all this, an awful sadness in his dark, ugly eyes. She said nothing of it, leaving before it got too hot to walk.

When she was halfway down the road, a lizard began to cross, and stopped just over the midline. ENA watched it, looking both ways, before tossing a rock in its direction. It didn't move. "Shoo, you idiot! You're going to get crushed!" Nothing, soaking up the sun. "Suit yourself." She kept walking, feeling bad but not stopping. Silly creatures like that, if they got squashed, it was their funerals to prepare. Callabus-drawn trucks had blasted down that road for years, the lizards should know by now. She wasn't going to take the blame and guilt for someone who was stupid, especially after she tried to warn it!

ENA stopped walking. "It's not my fault." She said, wanting to keep going to school. She had so much to do, having missed days worth of classes.

There was a rumbling sound coming in the far distance.

She turned and ran, dropping her schoolbag and the water bottle. She gasped for breath as she ran, spying the lizard in the middle of the road, where she had left it. Down the road was a team of callabus hauling their heavy cargo, unlikely to stop. There was a thrill as ENA felt herself pick up speed, and dive headlong into the strip of asphalt, feeling the heat blow against her uniform. The lizard squirmed in her hands, she kicked up pebbles and scrambled to get out of the way.

The team driver blew a horn angrily as she threw herself down onto the sidewalk, scratching up her knees. The lizard hopped down and took off.

You idiot.

"ENA!"

She frowned. Either the voices were getting louder, or -

"What the fuck was that? I only see you for five seconds and you jump in front of a truck on the expressway! What's your problem, you absolute dumbass? Do I have to call you a cab to go to school? I thought you were going to get fixed!" Moony hovered close enough for ENA's ear to ring by the time she finally pulled back. "How is it possible that you look even worse than- hey, what's that smell?" She had been pushing against ENA's chest to try and bring her back up onto her feet. ENA leaned on her, concentrating on steadying herself. "Well?"

"Nothing. Spent some time with family. Had some breakfast...I forgot to pack lunch." She picked up her schoolbag and slung it back over her shoulder. She was slumping a little bit more, she must have pulled something out of place. What did it matter, though?

It did matter. Moony was worried, and ENA was the reason she was worried. Once again, you've managed to ruin things, how many times is this person going to forgive your mistakes before she realizes you aren't going to change?

ENA stood up straighter and put on a smile. Quickly, she used Khet to heal herself. At least it had some uses, she wasn't about to let the past couple of days go to waste.

"Ena, I worry about you a lot. This is why." Moony hurried beside her as more suns began to join their brothers in the sky. Moony herself wasn't bothered by the heat but moved quickly anyway. "I thought that when you came home, I wouldn’t have to turn my back and feel bad about it."

"Moony, my closest friend. I'm flattered you worry about me, but I want to reassure that you have nothing to fear. I have returned greater, just as you assumed. In fact, there was no danger at all. Look! Did you see me? Not even a scratch. I just had a thought, and I couldn't help but act on it. So I want to promise you here, I won't leave you."

"You had better not." Moony said, her anger dampened into resignation. "I don't know what to say at your funeral. I'm not sure I could even attend. I’m not good at those things."

"I'm sure you'll be a stand up act at my funeral. Just keep them waiting, and then, when they least expect it, the punchline."

"I'll show you a punchline, dork." She said, bumping up against ENA's side, making her feel more smiley both inside and out. The clouds lifted, and by the time they reached the tunnel going into the schoolyard, she felt more prepared to handle the long day ahead of her. "Oh, also! I was going to give you this earlier. I found it when I was leaving school the other day, so I figured it was yours. I would ask 'does it look familiar?' But...just look and you'll see."

ENA didn't really understand what she meant at first and wasn't sure at first how to pick out what Moony was referring to, she stored everything from snacks to books to pencils in her pocket. But Moony was right - when she saw it, she didn't have any words.

It stared up at her with big, hopeful eyes, dark and familiar. She recognized every part of it right down to the black socks on its feet.

"Creepy, right? Just picked it up and thought I'd show you. I haven't shown anyone else because I thought they'd take it away as evidence of some kind of weird-ass plot. So before they do that, I thought you should see."

ENA couldn't speak. In seconds, she was entranced by the small thing before her eyes, and a connection between them was made that instantly cast away all the terrible things that had happened to her up until that point. Her heart ached, and she felt full of fuzziness and joy.

The doll looked at her, asking to be picked up. ENA obliged, very, very carefully so to not ruin it, she slipped her unworthy hands under its soft body and lifted it up. It had a weight, somewhat heavy, but not terribly. Slowly, she pulled it out of the pocket and out into the world, where the fabric of its hair fell when first encountering gravity.

"...uh, Ena?"

"This is the happiest moment of my life. I didn't need to go away from home and get stabbed by my Papa in order to solve all my problems, all of them disappeared right here."

"Excuse me, what?!"

She repositioned the thing to lay down against her arm. It smiled up at her, gazing innocently. She smiled back, teary-eyed. It looked just like her, it had to be a baby, her baby. She could have sworn there was more to making babies than just having them show up out of a void, but she knew her style of hair, the half-colored face, the eyes, they were all influenced by her, so to some degree, that made it her baby, and her its parent. "Thank you for the baby, Moony. This is a pleasant surprise, and much less blood and agonized screams than seen on T.V. Just when I thought I had no more tears left…"

"No, wait, back up just a sec- about the stabbing part. And that's not a baby, that's a poorly-sized effigy, I think. Like what people use to burn the likeness of disliked people."

She petted its hair with one hand, rocking it and making kissy noises. "I like you too, Moony. I also like this baby more than I like myself."

"I- you know what? I don't care. Go for it. Baby. Knock yourself out. Whatever helps you sleep at night, keeps you sane, whatever. I'm going to class, it starts in a couple minutes. Are you going to be okay today?"

ENA nodded. Baby kept smiling at her, soft and little, entirely helpless to her power. "Yup."

"If you feel any kind of pain, or start noticing strange stuff, burn the doll. Otherwise, don't mention my name to the cop of anything comes up."

"Yup." She started walking in the direction of the stairs. Were babies allowed in school? In case they weren't, she put it in her bag, taking out her blood sample to give to the guard. Babies were too dumb to learn anything, so it could stay in the cubby hole while she learned. If there was anything she knew from the television and her parents complaining when seeing young girls with babies in public, it was that she had to finish school. 'If she had stayed in school and gotten an education, she wouldn't have ruined her life by having a child she can't take care of.' Said Papa once. Then again, Papa was recently proving himself to not be a pillar of knowledge when it came to having and raising children.

She would just have to show him how it's done. She'd do well in her classes with Baby, who insofar didn't hate her yet. She'd keep herself in control, and just to spite him, she'd be even better at Khet than he ever could hope to be. She'd practice even when he wasn't looking.

Mr. Abdulayev stood at the end of the hall, and his ears pricked up when he noticed her. “Good morning, Enakai! You’re just in time. Let’s get started for today. Promise me you’ll behave?”