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was still.
    â€œI’m sorry,” Hannah whispered.
    Lillian turned to her. “You are not going to teach my children to lie.”
    â€œI won’t. Really. I’m sorry.” This was terrible. She was just about the most honest person she knew. Just a few months ago, she’d found a wallet lying on the ground with the equivalent of forty American dollars in it, and she’d returned it, even though everyone said she was crazy. Katya said that anyone with that much money in their wallet had tons more and she should give it to her babushka, maybe pay some bills. Hannah had flushed with embarrassment, sure that Katya somehow knew that they hadn’t paid the electric bill for two months. Since her uncle Vladi had gone missing, they didn’t have enough money, and the power had been turned off in their apartment. They’d had to use candles for the last month and put ice in the refrigerator to keep the food cold. And still she’d given back the wallet.
    â€œI want bar!” Michael yelled, stamping his feet.
    Lillian bent down and picked him up, gently smoothing his curly blond hair back away from his face. “Dinner first.”
    â€œBar now!” He flailed and tossed his head back.
    â€œNo!” she barked, and put him back on the ground. Michael started thrashing and screaming on the floor.
    Lillian opened a drawer, slid out a washcloth, and wet it under the faucet. Then, she took careful steps across the room, around the flailing boy, and slowly wiped the dirty wall in little circles. Michael stopped to watch along with the rest of them, whimpering so they wouldn’t forget about him. Sergey rested his hand on Maggie’s back. When it was clean, Lillian walked back to the sink, rinsed off the cloth, and hung it in the cupboard below.
    Maggie stalked out of the room, looking annoyed, and Sergey began opening the containers filled with potatoes, roasted chicken, and what looked to Hannah like a broccoli and pasta salad, though perhaps she was wrong. That was an awfully strange combination of foods.
    â€œYou need to set the table,” Lillian said to her, pointing at the cupboards. Her voice was calmer now, as if nothing had happened. “The dishes are in there. You can find the utensils in the large drawer.”
    Hannah stood up fast. The sudden motion made all the blood rush to her feet, and for a moment, she couldn’t see anything but black. Her body wobbled. She reached out to grab the glass kitchen table. Her vision came back before anybody noticed. She’d never been awake this long in her whole life.
    She carried the dishes to the kitchen table. Michael was still moaning and whimpering on the floor, but everyone was still ignoring him, so she did the same.
    â€œNot that one,” Lillian barked. “Through the door.”
    There was another room off the kitchen. Hannah opened a sliding wood door and gazed at a beautiful maple dining room table, brand new with no stains or scratches.
    Lillian came up behind her with a white tablecloth, which she stretched across the table. “I’ll show you where to find everything tomorrow,” Lillian said. “I don’t want my table to be ruined.”
    Hannah set the table as Katya had taught her, hoping that she remembered it right. After it looked ready, she stepped back and admired the gleaming, matching perfection. Lillian came up beside her in the doorway, holding Michael on her hip. His cheeks were shiny with tears, but he was smiling because he was eating a sirok bar.
    Lillian looked displeased. Hannah followed her gaze to the table, wondering what she’d done wrong. Katya had taught her the Western way to set a table before she’d left, but maybe she’d left something out.
    â€œElena, I see you didn’t understand me.”
    This definitely wasn’t the time to correct her about the name. “I’m sorry?”
    Lillian continued, “You’ll be sitting in the