My dad is coming.  My mom tells me to go upstairs because she needs to be alone with him.  She will call for me when they’re done.

When the amahs say that he is in the house, Nuyin and I press our ears to the floorboards.  We hear nothing.

Finally, I’m called downstairs.  Where is daddy?  My mom says that he left.  Why?

He asked to come back to us and she said no.  Then she says that my sister was her witness.   Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.  It is one of the commandments.  Why does my mom need a witness?

I see my sister standing in the doorway.  She was in the room with them the whole time.   Little old woman, that’s what the amahs call her behind her back.  Only twelve years old, and she is running the household, telling the amahs what to do and checking the supplies.  Now she is a witness why our dad can’t come back.  I don’t care why.

I run outside even though it is night.