Chapter 2

I took the information in much faster than I expected. In a second, I was moving to what that could mean. But I stood there, not sure what it meant to me. Before I could think any further, Bela spoke again.

“When he comes into town to buy his supplies,” Bela frowned very hard. “he sees this woman. They…” Bela let the words go. I knew what was happening. And it was mom who was being betrayed.

I went numb for a few seconds, but then the anger came up, like a hot coal. It rose from my chest and then entered my head. There it stayed, making my face go red. I looked at the ground too. Staring at the same dirt he was looking at. I thought of all the anger that my dad would take out on his family. And then he would come into town to...to…

I had a decision. Would I take Bela’s word for it? Or would I find out for myself. I decided, without thinking, that I wanted to know it for myself. For some reason, that seemed like it would help.

“Show me, Bela.”

Bela refused. I threatened to tell mom. And with that, he said ok.

Bela must have found out this secret himself, because he led me down the side street like he knew where he was going. Peeking around corners, he walked ahead, moving quickly. After our third side street turn, he brought me to a house that was part of a row of houses, all built together as one. The buildings stood four levels high, and that made this part of town a good place for hiding places. No wonder dad had come here.

“He’s in there.” Bela pointed at a door that looked like all the others.

“How do you know?” I looked to Bela for an answer. He did not respond. I thought about trying to get an answer from him. But then I spotted stairs. They led to the other parts of the buildings, so people could get into their rooms at the higher levels. The stairs were on the outside of the building and anyone could walk up them. They weren’t locked. There were windows for all of the houses on those parts, but the one that dad was in had no windows. “You’re sure he’s in this one?” Bela nodded, still saying nothing.

I could not explain it, but I needed to witness the betrayal for myself. Even though I knew I would be even more angry. Again, I don’t know why, but I needed to see. Maybe so I could feel right about being so angry. Maybe…

But that was a big maybe.

I looked at the stairs and had an idea. “Come with me.”

Moving up the stairs, I went to the spot where one of the people had left out some thick wooden boxes. Moving them around quickly let me find a way to hide in a good place without being seen from anyone below. Nela was also able to lay atop them with me, but when I looked over the edge he refused to do the same.

After what must’ve been less than an hour, dad left the door that Nela had picked out.

As I saw him go, I decided that I couldn’t go inside. And so I would miss most of what I wished to know at this moment. But there would be other times. To catch him. I would need to wait. But waiting here would be dangerous.

With a sigh, I turned back to Bela. "Ok. Let's go home."

On the trip back I allowed myself the time to think. If anything, I would stay quiet. Like Bela. He knew a dirty secret, and it had eaten him up. And now I knew it too. But would I stay secret?

As I walked back home with him, I glanced several times at my older brother. The … man? Boy? What was he? Older than me by a bit. But so much younger than me in other ways. My...brother...had less fight in him. I was the fighter. The one willing to do something about this secret. And I wonder...did he fear me like we feared dad? Knowing that I might hurt others in my rage? I realized that if I did so I would be just like father…

“Bela…” I tried my best to be gentle with my voice. “Thank you for telling me.” I reached out to him, wanting to squeeze his arm. He made no reaction when I did so. Bela may have been miles away from me at this point, in his mind. But still, he slightly shrugged. I didn’t know what to make of that, but it was better than nothing. I sighed. I felt like I had no power. This secret was too big for me. And it was affecting me, like a monster haunting the dark. Ready to eat me. A weird moment passed where I hated Bela for a second, for telling me. But I let that go. I could not afford to make him an enemy. He would need to be an ally. For my own sanity. I could not hate everyone right now. Too much of it was focused on dad, all ready.

"Bela...what should we do about dad?"

He took a while before responding. Again, that was his way. "What can be done?"

The answer had a lot of feeling in it. He had given up. Maybe in some way, he had told me so that maybe I could do something? I figured I should ask. "Do you want me to do something?"

Again, a long pause. "I don't know." A deep frown after.

"Would you care if I did something?"

"......It depends on what you would do…"

"......I'll let you know before I do anything, ok?"

"...Yeah."

The rest of the trip back home was silent. But it was a sad silence.

*

Later that day, dad returned home. No words were spoken because I had made sure to be playing outside for most of the rest of the day. From the garden, I saw him enter the front door, but I don’t know if he had seen me outside. His eyes never looked anywhere but at the ground as he came up to the house.

“Ty.”

His voice came from the living room shortly after I kind of crept back inside. It must have been plain that I was the one opening the door. The rest of the family was inside, doing other things that were normal. I was the one not acting normally. Could he tell already?

“Coming.” I answered his call as calm as I could, and walked into the living room, shivering slightly at the doorway, trying to get myself to be blank, not showing anything was odd.

“Why did you go into town today?” He was sitting in a chair that faced away from the door, and as I came into his vision, he looked at me calmly. I could still tell though, behind those eyes there was a quietness that made me very afraid. It was the same look I had seen many times before he had laid into me.

“I…” I shivered, against my will. “I was going in to…” A lie needed to come to me quickly. I had forgotten to plan for it. “To see stuff at the store.” He would know I meant Uncle Nelg’s store. But then I remembered what I had told mom. “And to also look at books.” My knees started to go weak as I remembered pain on my body from past beatings. “Didn’t mom tell you?” I hated myself for wanting to save myself by dragging her into it. But she was mom. I was just a kid.

The question sat between us, unmoving. Dad looked at me with the quiet danger of a predator, ready to pounce on a mouse. “She told me.”

I almost fell down with relief. A deep sigh of relief escaped me and dad had to have noticed. Yet still his face never changed its calm hateful stare. I heard a small clatter of plates on the other side of the house. Mom’s voice let out a cry that quickly died out. She was doing the dishes? I knew she would be no help to me when going up against Dad. “She told me you went there to see your friend. Who’s your friend?”

“Just a friend…” I thought of a quick way to get his attention away from me. “A girl.” I looked at my feet and tried to fake blushing. Maybe he would stop asking questions if he thought I was hiding a crush I had. But the next thing would be who the girl is…

A scary moment passed. “What’s her name?”

Rosy was the only person I could think of. I played out what might happen if I said it was her. My heart was in my throat. I thought maybe if I didn’t say anything, he would leave it be.

“I asked you what her name is.”

I sighed. “Rosy.”

“And did she buy you any books?”

The question wasn’t that unusual, as we couldn’t afford things like that. “No.”

Dad didn’t ask anymore questions, and scary moment after scary moment passed while I stood there, being looked at, waiting for him to continue. For the first couple seconds I looked at him, trying to look at his nose rather than at his eyes. After that I looked at my toes again, and then at the chair. Waiting for him to say I could go.

When I finally looked back at him, he spoke. “Why didn’t I see you on the road back home?”

The question threw me, because I didn’t know how to respond. “What?”

“I stopped at Nelg’s. I spoke to your friend Rosy. I should have seen you there or on the road back home. So why didn’t I see you?”

Before I thought of an answer I asked a truly dumb but honest question. “What time did you stop in there?”

Dad seemed to be confused for a second but then his eyes came back to rest on me. “Where else did you go in town?” He refused to answer my own question. He was searching. And I was pretty sure what he was looking for.

“We stopped in at the tannery, before we left.”

“Why?”

I shrugged, trying to seem honest. “I’d never been in there before.”

Dad glared at me for a long moment, and I did the same little dance, trying to look away, but also at him. Again, when my eyes returned to him, he spoke. It was always this way with him. To want complete ownership over conversations with me. “Bela!”

I tried my very best to not look worried while waiting for Bela to come in.

“Did you go to the tannery today?”

“....yeah.” Bela said. And with that in a way he had something going for him, as the way he answered seemed like an attempt to leave the conversation. But he did that with everyone, all the time. So it seemed normal.

“And why did you go to the tannery?”

Bela looked at me before responding. But there was nothing I could tell him, and I don’t know if he’d heard anything said so far. “Cuz Ty wanted to…”

I held my breath, because a deep sigh of relief was trying to get out. Instead I looked back to dad, trying to keep fear out of my eyes.

He watched us both, looking to see if we did anything odd. But thankfully, the worry in our body was normal. This wasn’t the first time he had questioned us like this. And it was a coin flip on whether it would end badly. But in the end, he relaxed back into his chair. I noticed at that time that he had even leaned forward. “Rosy seemed to think you had left straight for home.” My heart skipped a beat and was terrified that Bela would give away everything. But luckily, thankfully, dad kept talking. “I guess you didn’t see me come into town.” He looked from me to Bela.

“No.” I shook my head. Maybe a little too hard. But he was looking at Bela when I responded. And maybe when he looked back to me he believed me, because he seemed ok with the answer.

“All right.” This was the first time since he had laid eyes on me that he looked to the floor. He seemed to be thinking about something, and I could only guess what it was about. Probably about this woman…and I quickly killed the heat rising in my chest from that thought. Instead, I tried to think of a way to end the conversation. But nothing came.

“That’s it. Ok.” He looked back to both of us and waved us off. We left as quickly as we thought was safe.

At this time in my life, I had never seen a play or heard of acting. But we all have that in us, right? The ability to lie.

My dad had lied. He had lied to all of us. Bela had probably discovered the truth while making trips into town with dad? But then again...how would he have found out? Dad would've been sneaking.

I would have to be sneaky myself now. Back at home, I was aware of a layer. A fabric in the air I could now see. The lie. When dad would go for supplies, I would need to be false. To not reveal my emotions. I knew the secret. Mom did not. And I would need to lie to them both. And to my little sister.

I spent a couple sleep-troubled nights trying to sort through my feelings. I was water in a bowl that was about to tip over. Trying to stay in. Reacting violently as I felt things. I was a wreck. I grew moody. The family almost immediately noticed. And when they asked, I didn't respond. I went into myself, and did not come out.

I started going out into the woods, on the edge of our farm. I wanted to be myself. Needing to not be among the lie. So I could breathe. And cry. I cried so much that I started laughing. That surprised me. I found it hilarious. I was so pathetically weak and powerless. With no ability to do anything. Even if I did...oh the evil that would come upon us. My dad would likely kill someone if the truth came out. We were nothing more than animals or pets that lived on his farm. Cattle for the slaughter. Things he tended to, but only to his own end. I was a caged animal. A dumb beast.

Books lost their flavor. I used to retreat into the worlds that pages offered. But they fell by the wayside. Just ink on page. I wandered through the woods instead, careful not to get lost, always keeping the farm within view. It was my fence. I could only go so far. But I dreamed of just taking off. Maybe living in town. But dad would find me, wouldn’t he. So I sat on the edge of my world, where the forest met the property. In time becoming fascinated with the raw feelings of tree bark against my skin. Sometimes rubbing my arms against an oak until I started to bleed. It was...a powerful feeling. The ability to hurt myself. To see the blood run. It gave me a sick ability to feel in control over myself. And I knew it. I knew what I was giving into. But I did not care. I had no other options.

The sick light of truth bothered me for weeks after our trip to town. Life became a sad joke. I learned even more how to not feel things. So I could keep breathing and not think about killing myself.

Lena was barely too young for "school", so mom would let her play outside or do whatever she wanted to amuse herself. This usually meant building dirt houses or looking for trees to climb. And more often than not, she would drag me out to play with her. Bela would be busy most of the time over at Uncle Nelg’s, working for the shop, but it was a special treat for her to get "biggest brother" (as she called Bela) to join her on adventures. As it went. Most days I would be taking care of Lena more than I would be learning. Mom would leave me to learn for myself if I could, if I had the time. Me watching Lena was a bigger priority, it seemed.

Since mom and Lena were the only two who didn't know, I started to hate my little sister, just because she did not carry this secret. But I also felt pity. I don't think she was old enough to even understand if I told her. And I knew I shouldn't and wouldn’t anyway. It seemed the wrong thing to do. We were supposed to protect her. And even though Bela had not protected me very well from this secret (up til now), I suppose I was supposed to protect him now too. I was the one who needed to fix it all, somehow. Just because I seemed like the only one who could.

That was a burden I gave myself. I don't think Bela ever said it out loud. But I read it in how he looked at me at times. He wanted me to fix it, now that I knew. And maybe it’s something I wanted to see. But I guess that doesn't matter now does it...my actions are in the past. It's not even left up to me now, if my actions were in the right. I am at the mercy of the ones I have both helped and hurt…

A couple weeks after the fateful day, Lena and I were playing outside. The morning had been spent building houses, and Lena had invented a very fun family of half-zombies and fairies who were planning to save the world from some clay monsters. A recent rain had given her the ability to build from mud some figures that kind of resembled the dirt people who were playing the evil roles. The zombies and fairies were completely pretend though, since neither of us knew how to make them look. Those were just stories. But luckily the breezy afternoon had given the fairies enough magic to blow away the clay people. The aftermath of the battle had caked Lena's dress with dirt and mud. Mom would be spending a good amount of time trying to clean it, but even after I told Lena this, she didn't care. Which made me a little upset. But...I let it slide. Lena was smiling. I was trying my best to also enjoy myself, and for a good hour or so, joy and color came back into my world. Until another battle took place on the edge of our playtime.

"I'm headed into town with Bela." Dad yelled this from the front door as he headed for the wagon. I stopped for a second as I looked his way. Quickly I remembered to pretend that I didn't care. I was having fun with Lena, right? So I nodded in the more not-caring way I could think of, and went back to playing with her. My heart did a couple beats where I almost started to hurt for Bela. But I had to stop. It would do him no good. So I killed him in my mind and went back to playing with Lena.

"Ty?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you know what zombies are?"

"Ohh….I read it in a book."

Lena thought for a minute as the clay people squished to death in her hands. "What book?"

The total number of books in our house were two. One Yghtl and the other was a teaching book of sorts that mom had tried to get me to read. It involved a lot of rules about how the stars moved, when to grow crops, and a couple of histories about more famous families from a long time ago. Mom fancied the Yghtl a lot more, and so most of the time she didn't even bother to make sure I read anything. Once I had remembered the right songs about Ygh and knew how to prepare the ceremonies she left me to my own makings. So zombies were something I had only learned from a book Gahn had copied for me. It had been hidden in my room and now I had barely thought of it.

"It was in a book I saw in town."

Nela took in what I said. "Do you like reading?"

I had stopped reading books for a few weeks now, and had only recently started to hurt myself on the trees. So I hadn't noticed until that moment how much I missed the feel of paper on my fingers. "I do." I looked her in the eyes and spoke true. "I like reading a lot."

When I started crying, Nela threw her arms around me and cooed. It was a motherly thing to do. Something she would one day be very good at. And it soothed me. She asked what was wrong. But I would not for the life of me tell her. She didn't need to know. So we sat there for a while and cried. It felt really, really good. I was connecting with someone for the first time after carrying around the darkness. And Bela could not (or would not) cry like this or come to sooth me. He was more distant than I was. Buried under a hill of darkness. Pretty much a walking zombie himself. And so I cried for him too. And after the cry, the anger flooded back. But it was muted this time. I was in control of it now. It had raged in the room, locked in its cage. Nela, in all her amazing love and kindness, had tied it up for me, allowing me to communicate with myself again. And as I sat next to Nela in the dirt, I resolved myself. I would do something to free our family from this monster. To heal everyone. To be the hero. Not just for me. For all of us.

"What were you crying about?" Nela asked the question again as she wiped away the tears from her own face. I felt slightly guilty as I hadn't noticed because of how much I had come undone myself.

"Oh…." I sighed, heavily. Shuddering a little as the sadness fell away. The silent bowl of rage refilled itself up again, giving me the strength to speak. "I've been going through a lot of things, lately, Nela."

"Like what?"

"Things I don't think you would understand. Or want to know about."

Nela frowned. "Ok…"

"You'll understand one day. Or I'll tell you. But for now enjoy yourself." I laid a hand on her shoulder, thanking whatever powers that be for dad's lack of interest in abusing her. It seemed he had at least the one good thing in him. "Be happy." I smiled weakly, and she stared back at me with confusion on her face, though after a second or two of silence she nodded and dropped the subject.

When Bela came back that night, I asked him how the trip into town had been. This was a bit of a rough way to say hello, as I had avoided him by accident for the last couple weeks. When I realized this, I apologized. He told me it was ok. I knew it wasn't. I hugged him anyway. But after that, I filled him in on my plans.

"Would you like to go into town with me tomorrow? I'm getting another book."

Bela looked concerned for me. "Is it only for books?" I guess he was asking the question because he didn't want me going near dad. I was ready for that though.

"Yes, Bela. And dad isn't going into town, is he?" I figured he wouldn't as resupplies were only once a week, if that. It also depended on how much business he did. There was rarely a time where he went into town two days in a row though.

"I guess not."

That settled it. The next day we headed into I'lochin, and as always, we brought our change of clothes. It was kind of an unspoken rule that I had noticed: people always sell and buy things in their nice clothes. And I also figured our farm clothes were not very nice to look at. They were mended a lot by mom, so they were better for serving their purpose. Not for looking nice.

In town, we headed to the roof and grabbed my book from Gahn. He may have been a bit surprised at my absence, but he said nothing. It seemed to be a not-spoken thing between us. Almost like a customer and a businessman doing business. The less said the better. We were not friends. Didn't need to be. Before finishing up with him, I asked if he had any spare paper and quill. He did, if I had an extra vial. And after we were done, and I had both a new book and fresh writing material, I gave Bela the real reason I was coming into town.

"I want to see the woman." The heavy weight of my words matched with the thunk sound of wooden steps leading off of the roof. "The woman that dad is seeing."

Bela froze on the stairs, and I waited for him to continue following me. But he didn't. He just stood there, not saying anything. Not really glaring at me but also not looking away. He just looked at me. Fear was on his face. I could not blame him much. But I also knew this would probably be how he would act. "I can go with or without you, Bela."

He looked at the steps, avoiding my eyes now. "I...don't think it's a good idea, Ty."

"I know…" I said this as calmly as I could, but not without a little force. I had made up my mind, and I wanted to give him that chance to join me or not. "But I am going, Bela." I repeated myself and his name for the last time. Walking down the stairs, I made it almost to the street before I heard Bela behind me. He had decided to follow me after all.

"Ty…" His hand was on my arm, in the same manner he had done when we were last in town. "I need to tell you something."

I waited, holding my breath. There seemed to be something else I didn't know. Everything slowed down at his next words:

"She's my mom."

This time I didn't react quickly. I looked at him, not understanding. I knew the words, but I found myself not knowing what they meant. "She's your mom…?" The words hung there. "She's your mom…" I looked around, we were in an alley, no one else was around. "How?" Bela shrugged his shoulders. I felt heat on my cheeks. "How?!" I push his hand away from me.

"Dad and her had me."

"That I know. But how? When?"

"Before mom and dad got married. She showed up after and told dad. He got really mad. But now…" He trailed off, as if this explained everything.

"Now what?"

"Dad brings me into town to see her." Bela said it like it was a sin. And it probably was of some sort.

The situation was starting to sink in a little, and I was beginning to figure things out. "So she's your mom. And that's how you know where she lives…" I did more thinking, quickly. "You've spoken to her quite a bit?"

"Yeah…"

"I want to meet her."

Bela reacted. "No! Dad must never find out."

I stood there for a bit. Going through options. Again, I could wait and meditate on things. That was probably the best. And it was probably best to pretend in front of Bela. To convince him that I wouldn't do anything. Then I could bring it up again after I'd had time to think. But that meant going back home. Waiting. I was so tired of being in this family. In these lies. I was fighting the urge to just bring everything to light. But I wanted to be in control of how things would end up. To make sure dad couldn't hurt anyone else, after I had planned all of my actions. I would keep him trapped once I threw the punch. And keep going until he went down. That was the smart thing to do.

"*sigh*...All right, Bela. We can head back home."

We passed through the town circle, and this time we didn't run into dad, as I had predicted. When I saw the tannery, I thought back to the time when we watched dad exit Uncle Nelg's shop. That reminded me of Rosy. And then I remembered the favor she had done for us. I owed her at least a thanks.

"Bela, do you mind if we stop at Uncle Nelg's shop?"

My brother exhaled loudly, as if a large box had been taken from him, and he could now breathe since he wasn’t burdened by it. He smiled slightly and his eyes lit up. I laughed quietly, but it was a bit hollow. It would be good for him to see Rosy and my mind needed to escape for a little from the blow of Bela's news about his true mom. Rosy and Bela's little dance of sorts would help. And it would give us something else to talk about on the way home other than the ugly truth of our family.

"Hey, Rosy."

She threw us a quick glance and reply - "Hi, Ty. Hi, Bela." - before returning to the person on the other side of the counter.

I walked through the store for a little bit, checking things out, waiting for her to finish up with the customer. It would be best to thank her when no one else was around. My fingers lightly brushed against the wooden shelves as I walked to the back. The further I went, the less light made it into the shop. By the time I got to the back, it was a little bit cooler. Hadn't noticed how warm it had been outside today, and it suddenly felt like a great idea to take a nap on the front porch of the store after finishing up here. Picking up one of the stone statues that Bela had made, I felt my hand cooled by the carved rock. It had taken in, it seemed, all of the darkness of the back of the shop. I wondered how much I had done that, now that my family had been put into darkness. Or rather, I mean, I was realizing how much in the dark we had been for a while now…all of us, in many ways.

My thoughts took me over until I heard the closing of the front door. Rosy, Bela, and I were alone in the shop. The other shopkeeper was out, and Rosy was covering, it seemed. A small mercy of a miracle. I wondered if I should make sure of that fact by asking her. No, it wouldn't take that long to do what I came here to do. And the coolness of the shop left me. I had grown warm as I readied myself, the tightness in my stomach making me act like a cornered animal.

"Nice of you guys to stop by." Rosy pulled her long flowy hair over her shoulders as she said this. I made note that she hadn't called us boys, as she had last time. In fact, she was standing different now, wasn't she? I saw her shoulders more behind her back and she seemed to be standing straighter. Her hands were now on her hips. Was she slightly out of breath? There was a lot that seemed to be different now, and I didn't know the cause for it.

"Thanks…" I said awkwardly. I had been lost in my own mind for a few seconds and the response didn't make sense.

Rosy wrinkled her brow at me slightly but then looked to Bela. "How have you been Bela?"

Bela was a wreck. That much could be seen to anyone, and I'm sure Rosy had noticed. "We've been helping dad with errands today." I gave this reason so as to lie for Bela. I doubted he could've thought of something better.

"Ahh. Your dad…" Rosy turned to look at me again, and now the moment had seemed to just naturally come. I could bring up the reason I was here.

"Yeah. And I wanted to thank you. For what you did…" I waited to see if she would know what I was talking about. But a second or two passed and so I continued. "For lying to my dad."

"Oh." Apparently she hadn’t been so knowing, and slightly blushed. "Don't think anything of it, Ty." She pursed her lips. "I wanted to help…"

“Lie?” Bela asked suddenly.

I looked at my older brother and frowned. He didn’t know. He wasn’t smart enough, like Rosy and me. And there was sadness in my voice, but I looked to Rosy as I explained. “She told dad that we had gone straight home. Instead of telling him where we’d really been.”

Understanding came to Bela. “Oh. At Gahn’s.”

I nodded my head silently when I looked back to him.

Unsteady quiet waited, and I figured Bela wouldn't do much talking. This had been all there really was to say and we didn't have any more reason to stay here. I looked for something else to talk about, or some other way to end the awkwardness. "How's business?"

"Business is good…" She faltered for a second until her own quickness kicked the conversation forward. "Your little figurines have kept selling well, Bela. I mean-they've continued to sell well. And...don't tell anyone but I might be recommending more of your carvings to people than I have been of anything else."

Bela stirred slightly when his name was mentioned and when she locked eyes with him, he stood very still for a second before moving his eyes back down again. It was painful to watch, the way he was torturing himself. And if Rosy had any compassion, she'd stop it somehow. But I had to take those words back. I think Bela was just what he was. And only life experience or a miracle could make him anything else. He wasn't as broken as people thought he was. I just think he was incredibly, incredibly different.

Nothing had been said between the three of us for a bit, and it was time to head home. The front door opened as a new customer walked in, so our leave was now a naturally timed one. "Well…I supposed we're headed home. See ya, Rosy."

"Bye."

I couldn't tell if there was something catching in her voice or not, but the word stuck with me for a mile or two.

A weird sadness followed me on the way out of town. What had I expected to really happen with Rosy? Did I like her? No...it seemed I didn't. after all. She was born of better stuff and handed better things. And I hated her for what she had been given just because she was born. But in the now, I guess I just wanted to do the right thing and thank her. Bela obviously was taken with her, and so that was another reason to go...but for me I had done everything I wanted to do. I guessed I should act as if I didn't like her and just continue on with my life. With that, I stopped thinking about her, giving her about as much of my attention as I would any shopkeeper.

"Bela, do you like Rosy?"

"What?"

"Do you like Rosy?" It was something to talk about on the way home, and I had no way to bring up the thing with Bela's real mom. This would at least break any uncomfortable silence between us.

"Yeah…" He shrugged.

He answered quicker than I would've expected as he seemed to not be hiding the fact. That was a little bit surprising. "What do you like about her?"

He frowned only slightly and answered a moment later. "She's pretty."

"Is that all?"

"No…" He looked away. "I mean...should there be other stuff?"

"I guess not." But in my mind I judged him a little, but not in a mean way. Rosy lived in a wealthy part of town. I thought about her mostly because she was better schooled and knew more words. But I guess that's just what I found "pretty".