What I pictured when she said this was those red streamers they used to toss from ocean liners at the moment of sailing, cascading down over the spectators below; or a series of lines, long thick lines of red, scrolling out from the roller coaster and from the girls in it like paint thrown from a bucket. Like long scrawls of vermilion cloud. Like skywriting.

Now I think: but if writing, what kind of writing? Diaries, novels, autobiographies? Or simply graffiti: Mary Loves John. But John does not love Mary, or not enough. Not enough to save her from emptying herself out like that, scribbling all over everyone in such red, red letters.

An old story.

But on that August day in 1935 I had not yet heard about abortions. If the word had been said in my presence, which it was not, I would have had no idea what it meant. Not even Reenie had mentioned it: dark hints about kitchen-table butchers was about as far as she had gone, and Laura and I—hiding on the back stairs, eavesdropping—had thought she was talking about cannibalism, which we’d found intriguing.

The roller coaster screamed past, the shooting gallery made a noise like popcorn. Other people laughed. I found myself becoming hungry, but could not suggest a snack; it would not have been apropos right then, and the food was beyond the pale. Richard was frowning like destiny; he held me by the elbow, steering me through the crowd. He had his other hand in his pocket: this place, he said, was bound to be crawling with light-fingered thieves.

We made our way to the waffle booth. Laura was not in view, but Richard did not wish to speak with Laura first, he knew better than that. He liked to fix things from the top down, always, if possible. So he asked to have a private word with the waffle-booth owner, a large dark-chinned man who reeked of stale butter. The man knew at once why Richard was there. He stepped away from his booth, casting a furtive glance back over his shoulder.

Was the waffle-booth owner aware that he’d been harbouring a juvenile runaway? asked Richard. God forbid! said the man, in horror. Laura had got round him—said she was nineteen. She was a hard worker though, she’d worked like a horse, keeping the joint clean, lending a hand with the waffles when things got real busy. Where had she been sleeping? The man was vague about that. Someone around here had given her a bed, but it wasn’t him. Nor was there any funny business, we had to believe it, or not that he knew about. She was a good girl and he was a happily married man, unlike some around here. He’d felt sorry for her—thought maybe she was in some kind of trouble. He had a soft spot for nice kids like her. Matter of fact, it was him who’d made the call, and not just for the reward either; he’d figured she’d be better off back with her family, right?

Here he looked at Richard expectantly. Money changed hands, though somehow—I gathered—not quite so much money as the man had expected. Then Laura was summoned. She didn’t protest. She took one look at us and decided against it. “Thanks for everything, anyway,” she said to the waffle man. She shook hands with him. She didn’t realize he’d cashed her in.

Richard and I each held one of her elbows; we walked her back through Sunnyside. I felt like a traitor. Richard installed her in the car, between the two of us. I put a steadying arm around her shoulder. I was angry with her, but knew I had to be comforting. She smelled of vanilla, and of hot sweet syrup, and of unwashed hair.

Once we got her into the house, Richard summoned Mrs. Murgatroyd and ordered up a glass of iced tea for Laura. She didn’t drink it though; she sat in the dead centre of the sofa, knees together, rigid, stony-faced, her eyes like slate.

Did she have any idea of how much anxiety and commotion she had caused? said Richard. No. Did she care? No answer. He certainly hoped she wouldn’t try anything of the kind again. No answer. Because he now stood in loco parentis, so to speak, and he had a responsibility towards her, and he had every intention of fulfilling that responsibility, whatever it might cost him. And since nothing was a one-way street, he expected her to realize that she had a responsibility towards him as well—towards us, he added—which was to behave herself, and to do as required, within reason. Did she understand that?

“Yes,” said Laura. “I understand what you mean.”

“I certainly hope so,” said Richard. “I certainly hope you do, young lady.”

The young lady made me nervous. It was a reproach, as if there were something wrong with being young, and also with being a lady. If so, it was a reproach that included me. “What did you eat?” I said, for a distraction.

“Candy apples,” said Laura. “Doughnuts from the Downyflake Doughnuts, they were cheaper the second day. The people there were really nice. Red Hots.”

“Oh dear,” I said, with a weak, deprecating little smile at Richard.

“That’s what other people eat,” said Laura, “in real life,” and I began to see, a little, what the attraction of Sunnyside must have been for her. It was other people —those people who had always been and who would continue to be other, insofar as Laura was concerned. She longed to serve them, these other people. She longed, in some way, to join them. But she never could. It was the soup kitchen in Port Ticonderoga all over again.

“Laura, why did you do it?” I said as soon as we were alone. (How did you do it? had a simple answer: she’d got off the train in London and changed her ticket for a later train. At least she hadn’t gone to some other city: we might never have found her then.)

“Richard killed Father,” she said. “I can’t live in his house. It’s wrong.”

“That’s not really fair,” I said. “Father died because of an unfortunate combination of circumstances.” I felt ashamed of myself for saying that: it sounded like Richard.

“It may not be fair but it’s true. Underneath, it’s true,” she said. “Anyway, I wanted a job.”

“But why?”

“To show that we—to show that I could. That I, that we didn’t have to…” She looked away from me, chewed on her finger.

“Have to what?”

“You know,” she said. “All of this.” She waved her hand at the frilled dressing table, the matching floral curtains. “I went to the nuns first. I went to the Star of the Sea Convent.”

Oh God, I thought, not the nuns again. I thought we’d put paid to the nuns. “And what did they say?” I asked, in a kindly, disinterested manner.

“It was no good,” said Laura. “They were very nice to me, but they said no. It wasn’t just not being a Catholic. They said I didn’t have a true vocation, I was just evading my duties. They said if I wanted to serve God, I should do it in the life to which he has called me.” A pause. “But what life?” she said. “I have no life!”

She cried then, and I put my arms around her, the time-worn gesture from when she was little. Just stop howling. If I’d had a lump of brown sugar I would have given it to her, but we were well past the brown-sugar stage by then. Sugar was not going to help.

“How can we ever get out of here?” she wailed. “Before it’s too late?” At least she had the sense to be frightened; she had more sense than I did. But I thought it was just adolescent melodrama. “Too late for what?” I asked her gently. A deep breath was all that was called for; a deep breath, some calm, some stocktaking. There was no need to panic.

I thought I could cope with Richard, with Winifred. I thought I could live like a mouse in the castle of the tigers, by creeping around out of sight inside the walls; by staying quiet, by keeping my head down. No: I give myself too much credit. I didn’t see the danger. I didn’t even know they were tigers. Worse: I didn’t know I might become a tiger myself. I didn’t know Laura might become one, given the proper circumstances. Anyone might, for that matter.