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right place. I couldn’t sign to Buddy with the baby in my hands, so I made a sound of happiness and set my lips on Buddy’s, and he made his voice move up and down until we met at the same sound, and then we held that note, the baby between us, our bodies humming together.
    They crossed the short lobby. Suzette, the other night attendant, was leaning back at the desk, a book open across her eyes, hermouth open beneath it. Suzette didn’t break up fights fast enough, though from what Lynnie could tell, the girls didn’t fight as much as the boys. The only trouble was if the boys made it to the girls’ side of the school. It had happened only once. Suzette wasn’t there that night, and Kate wasn’t, either, and—
Oh, do not remember.
    They entered the dayroom. The benches and plastic chairs were empty. The floor was dirty, waiting for working girls to wax it during breakfast. Even the TV was off. Lynnie remembered how much worse things were before the TV. They’d sit in the room with nothing to do except crack jokes and make up games—or make fun of one another and try to steal the few items someone had gotten from her family. Residents claimed their seats and held them for years.
    Kate whispered as they moved in the direction of Lynnie’s sleeping room, “You’re going to get punished somehow, but I’ll try to get you off light.”
    At the end of the dayroom, they turned toward the lavatory. Good.
    They passed the sinks. The toilets. There were ten, all lined up behind what looked like separate metal doors, only inside there were no dividers, so one attendant could watch ten residents do their business all at once. Lynnie reached for them, but Kate didn’t notice. She was saying, “Let’s get you bathed. I’ll tell them you were cooperative, and maybe they’ll be less severe.”
    Kate stopped at the edge of the bathtubs and, moving behind Lynnie, began unbuckling the camisole. “I can stay and watch you here tonight. But I have to go home in the morning.”
    The camisole came off. Kate tossed it to the side.
    “Where did you get such nice clothes? Your hair rolls down this dress like Rapunzel.”
    Lynnie grunted with gladness.
    “I’m sorry you won’t be able to wear this.” She began working the top button loose.
    That first night so many years ago, the receiving nurse had said Lynnie could keep her clothes for special occasions, which turned out to mean whenever Uncle Luke showed officials around, bragging about how wisely the public’s money was being spent. Lynnie didn’t know that when the School first opened in 1905, residents wore uniforms for visits, the boys resembling military cadets, the girls domestic workers. Now they wore clothes from home, which were inevitably nice because they were kept in lockers for which the residents had no keys. Even so, sometimes clothes vanished. “No one has anything of his own here,” Tonette told her that first night. “Not even a toothbrush.” She was right. Every morning the lavatory had a line as they all waited to use the one toothbrush.
    Lynnie felt the dress drop to her ankles. “Honestly,” Kate said, “I wish you’d gotten away.” She unhooked the old lady’s bra, noting it with admiration; it was the first bra Lynnie had ever worn. The state recently approved funds to fix a hole in the barn roof though once again rejected the request for brassieres. It was Buddy who’d fastened this one onto her.
    What will Kate do when she finds out?
Lynnie hadn’t had to work too hard at hiding her growing belly, with the oversize clothes, the mushy food, the sweating she did in the laundry. She’d hid nothing else from Kate all these years.
Will she be angry? Will she tell?
    Kate reached up and hooked her thumbs around the panties and pulled them down.
    Lynnie stood naked in the chill room, so much she’d not said revealed.
    “Dear God,” Kate croaked. She came to Lynnie’s front and took her into her arms.
    That night, Lynnie lay in her bed