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was going to take to convince her father to let her study to become a nurse. Already she’d begun dropping hints. Nobody had said no to her wishes and she took this as a good sign.
    “I don’t like it when people leave.” Meeza pouted and moved her leg away from Dalal’s.
    “I don’t either.”
    They lay quietly, letting the wind rock them and trying not to think about the event that they were not allowed to talk about. Meeza began singing a song she’d learned in school and Dalal knew she’d gotten over her sadness of a moment before. The thing about Meeza was that she never held a thought or emotion for long. Dalal closed her eyes and felt her body relax. The soothing motion of the swing and the warmth of the sun even in the shade were making her drowsy. She was almost asleep when Meeza stopped her chant and poked Dalal in the side.
    “I heard a car door. Daddy’s home.”
    “We’ll have to start supper.”
    Dalal felt the lurch of the hammock as Meeza launched herself onto the lawn. She watched Meeza race toward the back gate to head off their father before he made it to the front door. Meeza might be nearly twelve years old but she had the mind of a much younger child. The teachers had been telling her parents for years that Meeza needed to go into a special class. They’d called her a simple child with special learning needs. After her report card and a late afternoon call from the school, her parents and older brother Ghazi had huddled together like plotting generals. They’d gone for a meeting the next day and returned without saying what had happened. Dalal knew her parents wouldn’t allow Meeza to bring dishonour, whether real or imagined, to the household. Sure enough, Meeza remained in the same class and was promoted at the end of the year without any more phone calls from the teacher.
    Dalal reached into her pocket for her cellphone and checked her messages. A text from Joe! She read it quickly before erasing it and tucking the phone back into her pocket. It wasn’t safe to answer him back.
    Her father and Meeza came through the gate a few seconds later, Meeza holding onto his hand and skipping at his side. Her father looked sternly in Dalal’s direction as if he sensed her guilt.
    “Ghazi will be home from his course in half an hour and he’ll be hungry. What are you doing lying there without supper started?”
    Dalal jumped to her feet. “I’m sorry, Father. I’ll get it going right now.”
    “See that you do and take Meeza with you. She needs to learn how to prepare a meal.”
    Dalal hurried across the lawn, but an unsettling thought made her stare at her father as she neared him and Meeza. What were her parents and Ghazi hatching now for Meeza? Were they going to send her to be a helper for another family? Dalal wouldn’t put it past them. She held out her hand to Meeza as she walked by.
    “Come, Meeza. You can make the rice tonight.”
    “Oh goody,” said Meeza, clapping her hands. She leaped into the air and twirled on one foot before reaching for Dalal’s hand.
    Dalal turned at the door and looked at her father again. He stood tall and motionless in the full heat of the sun, watching them with laser-beam eyes. Dalal smiled in his direction, but a sudden cold tingling up her spine made her hand slip from the door knob. She banged her shoulder against the door before she managed to twist the handle open. Meeza squealed when Dalal yanked her into the kitchen away from their father’s piercing stare .
    The bad stuff’s not over yet, Dalal thought. And I have no idea how to stop it.

Chapter Ten
    R ouleau introduced Kala to the rest of the team first thing the next morning. She shook hands with Ed Chalmers and Zack Woodhouse, then took a seat next to Gundersund. They were in a small boardroom down the hall from their offices. Kala had already been taken on a quick tour after getting a temporary building pass and signing some paperwork that made her an auxiliary officer on loan from