The Different Girl

You were still asleep. You didn’t wake until we got you here. And what you need to know—what we haven’t told you—is that these angry people haven’t changed. Do you understand?”
    What we all understood was why Robbert was telling us now.
    “Is that what happened to the Mary ?” asked Caroline.
    Robbert didn’t snap at her, so Isobel leaned forward.
    “Why would anyone sink the Mary if May only had two parents?”
    “That doesn’t make sense,” said Eleanor.
    “Is it because of the numbers in the picture?” asked Caroline.
    “Does the Mary mean angry people came near our island?” I asked.
    As soon as it was said, everyone knew my question was the most important one of all, and we waited for Robbert to reply. He nodded when he saw us waiting, and took a breath to think. This became a different kind of talking, an answer he had to make right now, almost as if Robbert were in class along with us.
    “We don’t think so,” he said. “They would already be here. When they find what they don’t like, they destroy it. Because it scares them—and you girls would scare them as much as anything they’ve ever seen.”
    “Why?” asked Isobel.
    “Because . . . because of what they believe .” He waved his hand to say it wasn’t something he wanted to describe. “So we can’t let anyone tell them. Do you understand? Not anyone .”
    “We won’t,” said Eleanor.
    “May won’t either,” I said.
    Robbert stared into my eyes.
    “Where do you think May is now, Veronika?”
    Since I already wondered if Robbert wanted us to find her, I was ready for his question. “Maybe in the dune grass, crouching down?”
    “Maybe.” Robbert kept up his stare. “But you don’t know . Just like you don’t really know what she’ll say.”
    “I’m sure she wouldn’t,” I said. “Not if we ask her to promise.”
    “No, Veronika. Think. Facts. What we know most about May is that we can’t predict what she’s going to do. Because that’s the difference between two parents and sixteen. You girls can do many things at once, but not things you don’t decide. May can do things—she will do things—without any decision at all. She’ll do things and then be sorry for them, after it’s too late. She’ll do things— say things—without even realizing what she’s done. And then what?”
    Robbert leaned back and crossed his arms, which meant it was time for us to think. I knew he didn’t believe me about May, but I didn’t know who else she could talk to on the island. The only others were the men on the supply boat—now a whole week overdue—and since we never saw them because of naps, it was just a matter of making sure May took her nap along with us. But then I thought of the aerial and Robbert’s machines in the classroom and telling the supply ship when to come and what to bring. Since May lived on a boat, did she know how to contact the supply boat, too? What if she contacted the wrong boat by mistake? How many other boats were there? How many nights had May spent with the machines? She’d seen how to wake me up. How many times had she watched Robbert with his tools? Was that why Irene had gone to look for her?
    “Did all of our parents love us?” asked Eleanor.
    “They did,” said Robbert. “Of course they did. Every bit as much as Irene and I do. And you’ve turned into just the girls they dreamed you’d be.”
    • • •
    There were so many more questions—names, hair, skin, voices, smells, everything. We wanted to know as much as we could about every parent, but Robbert said it was time to go outside. We followed him down the steps. Knowing how many people had been on the plane that exploded made me think of how lonely Robbert and Irene must have been afterward. How would I feel if I was alone with only Eleanor, never to see Isobel or Caroline ever again, or Robbert or Irene, or May? I had always assumed that Robbert and Irene were the most important people to each other in the world, but now I realized I didn’t know that at all. What were their lives before the plane crash—and us—had bound them together?
    What was it like to live with sixteen parents? If they were as different as Robbert and Irene, did that mean that some were also more like each other, were closer than the rest? Was there someone that Irene loved more than Robbert, or even more than us? I knew they did love one another because Irene would sometimes pat Robbert’s head when he said something cranky,