I nod.
He lifts Blue Rex slightly. “He is.”
“Good. We need fair judges around here. Some of these women cheat at cards.”
“Cheating is bad.”
“Depends who you’re cheating.”
August considers that.
I sigh. “Hot Mama.”
She laughs. “Fine. We’ll corrupt him slowly.”
August smiles.
Then the girl with purple boots grabs his sleeve. “Come on. Kids eat first.”
He goes.
Just like that.
A little piece of him runs into the noise, into the line, into a place where he isn’t strange for being scared and not special for having run.
I stand there, watching him receive a bowl before any adult touches food.
Kids eat first.
Rule three.
Something inside me loosens.
Hot Mama comes to stand beside me.
“He’ll sleep hard tonight,” she says.
“He hasn’t had other kids in a while.”
“Bad men shrink a child’s world. We stretch it back out.”
I look at her.
She says things like Lottie. Like knives wrapped in quilts.
“How long can we stay?” I ask.
“As long as you need. Not as long as you can hide.”
I frown. “What does that mean?”
“Means this ain’t a place to rot pretty. You rest. You eat. You cry. You get your feet under you. Then you decide what kind of woman walks out.”
“And if I don’t know?”
“That’s why we straighten crowns.”
My hand goes unconsciously to the skin behind my ear as I remember Lottie’s crown tattoo.