Chapter 19

“Is boy!” Bo squealed at her sister, pointing to the unconscious figure on the bed.

“Shh, shh!” Li waved her down.

“Nobody’s home to hear,” Bo complained.

“Quiet, I’m thinking!” Li said insistently. She paced along the end of the bed silently for a moment, her ink black eyes never leaving the person whose face she barely recognized beneath the scraggly beard. After a few minutes’ speculation, she turned to her sister and said, “So it is the son... I thought he was older.”

“And dead,” Bo reminded her.

“Yes. Dead. That’s a problem. So it can’t be Michael. It cannot be him,” Li concluded. “But then who?”

She pursed her lips and looked back at the boy on the bed. “Body is similar, but beard?”

“Maybe it is the daughter, and she take drugs,” Bo suggested.

“Maybe,” Li nodded. “Maybe drugs...”

“What should we do?” her sister asked.

The elder woman shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The person on the bed stirred slightly and opened his eyes.

“Mei?” the gruff voice said softly, a frightened lilt tinting the word.

“Who are you?” Li prodded, keeping a safe distance while thinking that she and her sister could surely overpower this strange man if they needed to. “Tell us your name?”

“It’s Mila. Mila Thorne. Do you remember me, Mei? I ran away from my mother... She was probably very angry,” Mila said, making no move to sit up. “My throat hurts.”

“You cost my sister her job!” Li shouted at her. “Because of you, your mother fired her!”

Mila’s eyes widened. “Oh, Mei, I’m so sorry. Was it because you were nice to me?”

Li turned on her sibling. “What’s this?”

Bo shrugged. “The mother was so cruel all the time. Besides, they were only small kindnesses.”

“Obviously they were big enough to draw the notice of the mistress!” Li shot back, her black eyes flashing.

“You guys, please don’t fight,” Mila pleaded, still lying flat on the bed. She coughed a little, hacking for half a minute before the sisters gave up their feud. “If you want, I could write her a letter, telling her it’s not your fault I ran away. It really wasn’t, you know.”

Li waved her hand dismissively. “So tell us what you are doing here now.”

“I’m lost...” Mila told them. “I was walking and I got lost... And then the storm came...”

“Okay, okay, stop,” Li said. “You ran away from home weeks ago, and you’ve been wandering around lost? When did you become a boy?”

Mila felt tears pricking her eyes. “I don’t know.”

The elder sister did not appear to believe her.

“What are we going to do with her... him?” Bo asked.

“What are you doing here? Do you want us to take you home again?” Li asked.

“No!” Mila squeaked, frightened again. “No, I don’t want to go back there!”

“Okay, okay, shut up,” Li complained. “So what you want to do now?”

“I don’t know,” Mila said, finally finding the strength to sit up, “but I am definitely not going home.”