Do Not Become Alarmed(26)

“He is.”

“He doesn’t think we should be here.”

“He didn’t,” George admitted. “But he doesn’t know what to do, so he left me to deal with it. As usual.”

“Are you going to take us back to our parents?”

“I’m working on it.”

“We won’t say anything about the grave.”

“Hm,” George said.

Penny ate her cereal, then went downstairs. Sebastian wasn’t in their room so she went to the other. He was sitting on Marcus and June’s twin bed, at their feet. They were still under the white duvet. Isabel was in the other bed, her long hair messy. They all looked disoriented and sleepy. Isabel looked Penny up and down in the new clothes, as if she’d let them all down by putting them on. There were folded clothes at the end of their beds, too.

“I want to go see Mom and Dad,” Junie said.

“There’s a new man upstairs,” Penny said. “He says he’s working on it.”

“Who is he?” Marcus asked.

“The brother of the man with the horse. His name is George and he talks like an American. He went to Berkeley.”

Sebastian brightened. “He knows Dad?”

“No,” Penny said. “He’s younger. I told him we wouldn’t say anything about the grave, so we can’t. Okay?”

Isabel flopped sideways on her pillow. “But everyone already knows about the grave!” she said. “So it doesn’t matter what we promise!”

“They could still take us back to the ship,” Penny said, uncertainly.

“Don’t be stupid,” Isabel said, into the pillow.

Penny was stung. “Do you guys want breakfast?”

June and Marcus put on their new clothes in the bathroom. The clothes were all exactly the same, as if someone had gone to a store and picked up a stack of the first thing they saw, in different sizes. June ran upstairs first.

“Wait!” Isabel said. “Don’t leave me alone!” She wrapped the white duvet around her bikini and dragged it after her.

Penny would have expected Isabel to be braver, with her green nail polish and her two languages. This was just like a sleepover in a new house, where you had to figure out all the rules.

Her heart sank a little when she saw June sitting on George’s knees at the breakfast table. June had been upstairs for like two minutes! And George was really Penny’s discovery. But no one was ever going to take Penny on their lap on first meeting her. She wasn’t adorable like June. She knew that feminism was freedom—she had the T-shirt—but still the sight of June and George being such pals made her unhappy.

“Nice toes,” George was saying. “They have medicine for that, you know.”

“It’s nail polish!” June said, laughing.

“Junie, get down,” Marcus said.

“Why?”

“Just do.”

June didn’t.

“There’s cereal,” George said. “Or you can wait for Maria to make eggs.”

No one moved forward.

“I had cereal,” Penny said, in the awkward silence. “Sebastian, you should have eggs.”

George lifted June to one shoulder, and she sat sidesaddle, clutching his head and laughing. George went to a cupboard, took out more bowls, and slid them onto the table with his free hand. Then he lowered June back down to his lap.

Penny’s father carried Sebastian sometimes, but no one ever carried Penny anymore. She had once pretended to fall asleep in the car so her father would have to take her in, but he had known she was faking and left her in the garage, to come in when she was ready.

“I won’t pour you cereal until you get down,” Marcus said to his sister.

“Fine,” June said, and she slid off George’s knee.

Sebastian said he would wait for eggs.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have some things to figure out,” George said, raising an eyebrow at Penny, and he went up to the third floor they hadn’t been to yet.

She felt a little better then. George had singled her out as the leader. It was better to be a leader than a lap-sitter.

Maria, the housekeeper, appeared with shopping bags and a small white bunny, which she lowered carefully into Sebastian’s arms. June ran to Sebastian’s side and they huddled together, cooing about the bunny’s softness. Maria put a hand on June’s head and then went to unpack the groceries. Penny wanted to pet the rabbit, but she didn’t want to seem like a little kid, so she just stood watching. June wanted to call the bunny Baby Rabbit. Sebastian said it wouldn’t be a baby forever, and they should call it Thumper or Puffball.

Maria broke eggs into a bowl.

Isabel leaned forward across the table. “Listen to me!” she whispered to Penny. “We have to escape.”

“George will help us,” Penny said.

“He won’t,” Isabel said. “You don’t understand.”

They heard voices below and a sharp bark, then toenails clicking on the stairs. A black dog came bounding up into the room where they sat. He ran to the table and greeted each of them in turn, panting. June shrieked and stood on a chair to protect the bunny. Marcus rubbed the dog’s black ears and said, “Hello, hello, hello, hello.” The dog’s whole butt wagged back and forth, ecstatic.