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"Children, sir?"

"Yes Do you like the"

Sara felt a fa "Yes, Deputy Director I like them fine"

She waited for further explanation fro He inspected her for another few seconds from across his desk, then picked up the telephone

"Tell thehly an hour later, Sara found herself garbed in an attendant’s robe, standing at the threshold of a room so sumptuously decorated that its volume of detail was difficult to absorb Heavy drapes were drawn over the s; the only sources of light were several large silver candelabras positioned around the room Gradually the scene came into focus The sheer volume of furniture and bric-a-brac made it seee room of miscellaneous objects A voluminous sofa covered in fat, tasseled pillows, as well as a pair of equally overstuffed chairs, stood to one side, facing a low square table of polished wood, its surface piled with books More pillows of various colors were scattered on the floor, which was dressed by an ornately patterned rug The walls were covered with oil paintings in heavy gilt frareat many portraits of woes possessing a disturbing half reality One in particular caught Sara’s attention: a woarden beside a little girl She moved toward it to have a closer look A suste Renoir, On the Terrace, 1881"

"Well, there you are It’s about time they sent someone"

Sara pivoted A wo in the bedrooe Sara had asses Vale and Wilkes had said The person she had envisioned was at the very least a substantial presence, but the figure before her appeared quite frail She was perhaps as old as sixty Deep fissures lined her face, cutting borders between its various regions; crescents of drooping skin hung like hammocks beneath her watery eyes Her lips were so pale they were practically nonexistent, like ghost lips She earing a shi robe of so her head like a turban

"Hablas ingles?"

Sara stared dumbly, unable to formulate a reply to this incolish?"

"Yes," Sara stated "I speak English"

The woave a little start "Oh So you do I have to say, that’s a surprise How many times have I asked the service to send solish? I don’t even want to tell you" She esture with her hands "I’ain?"

Never in with "It’s Dani"

"Dani," the woeneral answer seemed the wisest "I’inally Your tribe Your people Your clan" Another agitated flutter of her hands "You know Your fa pulled deeper into the quicksand of the wo about her was al bird in a cage

"California, actually"

"Ah Noe’re getting so look: "Oh, I see You’re working your way through school Why didn’t you say so?"

"Ma’am?"

"Please," she chirped, "call me Lila And don’t be so reat show of character Of course, that doesn’t irls I made that clear with the service Fourteen an hour, take it or leave it"

Fourteen what? Sara wondered "Fourteen is fine"

"And, of course, the Social Security We’ll be paying that, and filing the 1099 David is very particular about these things He’s what you’d call a rule follower A big ol’ stick in the mud No health insurance, I’h your school" She beaood?"

Sara nodded, completely dumbfounded

"Excellent I have to say, Dani," the wo into the room, "you’ve come just in the nick of time Not a moment too soon, in fact" She had taken a box of e candelabra near her dressing table "Why don’t you just put that over there?"

She was referring to the tray Wilkes had given her On it was a metal flask and cup Sara placed the tray on the table the woman had indicated, adjacent to an ornately carved wardrobe draped with scarves Lila had positioned herself in front of a standingher shoulders this way and that, exa her reflection

"So what do you think?"

"I’m sorry?"

She placed one hand on her stomach and pressed inward as she filled her chest with air "This awful diet I don’t think I’ve ever been so fa the trick What would you say, Dani? Another five pounds? You can be honest"

Standing in profile, the woently "I wouldn’t lose any more"

"Really? Because when I look in thisis, who is this blimp? This zeppelin? Oh God, the hu"

Sara remembered Wilkes’s orders "I think you’re supposed to eat, actually"

"So I’m told Believe me, I’ve heard that before" She placed her hands on her hips, scrunched up her face, and dropped her voice an octave "Lila, you’re too skinny Lila, you’ve got to put some meat on those bones Lila this, Lila that Blah, blah, blah" Then, her eyes widening with sudden panic: "Oh uess it’sabout noon?"

"Oh an to dart around the rooain in a manner that seerabbing a pile of books and shoving them into the bookcase

"What would you likeHere-" She filled Sara’s hands with pillows "Put these over there On the whooziwhatzis"

"Um, you mean the sofa?"

"Of course I ht seemed to switch on in the woht She was staring over Sara’s shoulder, toward the door

"Sweetheart!"

She dropped to a crouch as a young child, a girl in a plain s, dashed past Sara into the woirl!"

The child, as holding a sheet of colored paper, pointed at the woman’s turbaned head "Did you take a bath, Mummy?"

"Why, yes! You kno Muirl you are! So, tell me," she continued, "hoere your lessons? Did Jenny read to you?"