- 3.
“Rain, where are you going?!” Mom asks.
I say, “To the basement. I made Lily cry.”
Every time Lily cried, I was thrown in there as
punishment.
Better to walk down there myself than be
dragged and hurt.
“The basement is no place for a human!”
Mom snaps.
I stare at her.
Mom pales. She falls back into the sofa.
Carter says, “You did nothing wrong. And
you’re claustrophobic.”
I respond, “I got over it.”
Carter’s eyes well up with tears. He
remembers telling me I was dramatic and
would get over it.
Lily, perceptive as always, senses my change.
She purses her lips and says, “Rain, did you
also…?”
<
Carter stares at her, warning her not to finish
the sentence.
I pause, confused why they aren’t punishing
- me. Then, I say I am going to my room.
Each moment with the Jones family makes
the nightmares clearer.
I lie down on the long–forgotten soft bed and
close my eyes.
I haven’t slept in a bed in years.
The slums are chaotic. Most houses aren’t
properly built. They are a mix of metal sheets
and wood that offer a place to sleep out of
the rain.
There’s nowhere to stay for a kid, let alone a
foreigner. I can’t build my own place.
When I first got to the slums, I used to spend
my nights huddled in cardboard boxes, hidden
in alleyways.
There are only two fates for unwanted
children in the slums.
Their organs get harvested for the rich, or
they become the playthings of the homeless.
I called the Joneses back then.
“Dad, Aunt Zhang left me in the slums! I’m so
scared! Can you please take me home?”
Dad said, “Rain, you lie. Zhang told
ne that
you moved to Wall Street.”
く
I crouched behind a dumpster and stared at
the silhouettes in the distance.
I was found. They’re searching for me.
Kids like me with clear skin and pretty
features are popular among those with
specific fetishes.
I held my breath to stop from crying. I shook.
Will anyone save me…?
Dad heard the silence and said, “Don’t bother
- me. I only pay attention to important
messages. Don’t waste my time.”
He hung up. I tried to call back, but I had
been blocked.
L
It was just a false alarm. They didn’t find me.
1 curled up like an abandoned stray cat, hiding
in the filth, and wept.
It was the clearest I had ever understood my
family’s disgust. I was abandoned.
I have no home.
“Rain, your parents want you downstairs for
dinner.”
The knock pulls me from my sleep. I realize
must have drifted off and dreamed of my
past.
They want me to eat dinner? That’s rare.
The Joneses don’t like my silent, gloomy
L
nature. Dad once said I should just eat in my
room and not ruin the ambiance.
I don’t know what they want, but I follow the
maid downstairs in silence.
Mom is missing the spot that Lily used to sit
- at. She smiles and pulls me to her.
When I sit, she puts a piece of fish on my
plate.
“Your mother had this made especially. Many
kids love sweet and sour fish. Lily loves it.”
