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“No, Maria, I’m not”

Elsa ran upstairs to her room She felt the start of tears and denied herself the relief they promised

She touched her flat, nearly concave sto secretly Surely a wo

An hour passed, then another What were they talking about, her parents? What would they do to her? Beat her, lock her away, call the police and report a fictitious crime?

She paced She sat She paced again Outside her , she saw evening start to fall

They would throw her out and she would wander the Great Plains, destitute and ruined, until it was tiive birth, which she would do alone, in squalor, and her body would give out on her at last She would die in childbirth

So would the baby

Stop it Her parents wouldn’t do that to her They couldn’t They loved her

At last, the bedroo unusually harried and disco, Elsa”

“Where aone for months after that scandal with Theodore Then she ca about it”

“Pack your bag”

Elsa knelt beside her bed and pulled out her suitcase The last time it had been used hen she went to the hospital in Ao

She pulled clothes fron and folded them into her open suitcase

Elsa stared at her overstuffed bookcase Books lay on top, were stacked on the floor beside it More books covered her nightstand Asking her to choose a to choose between air and water

“I haven’t all day to wait,” Mama said