not much to deliver, and Jessie can take care of it in the morning.”
“Oh,” Mrs. Purcell said dismissively. “That’s very nice. Very much appreciated. Only, there is another member of the staff with a daughter Irene’s age—”
“Mrs. Swift.” Mr. Griswold supplied the name, avoiding meeting Mrs. Kadonada’s gaze.
“And her daughter. I just thought, the two of them, they might have...more in common.”
“Betty Swift is only eleven,” Mrs. Kadonada said. “Surely—”
“She and Irene will be going to school in Lone Pine together,” Mrs. Purcell said pointedly. “With all the other staff children. There’s to be a bus. Really, I think that maintaining some degree of...separation is for the best.”
She exchanged a cool glance with Deputy Chief Griswold, who cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Lucy felt sorry for Mrs. Kadonada, who looked as though she had been slapped. But it was Jessie who spoke.
“Nice meeting you, Mrs. Purcell, Irene. Come on, Lucy, we’re going to be late. Bye, Mom.”
He turned around and headed for the door without even saying goodbye to Griswold, and after a split second’s deliberation, Lucy followed him. Behind them the screen door slammed, and then they were out in the full force of the sun.
“Just what we need in this place,” Jessie said. “Another stuck-up white girl.”
Lucy had seen a few kids playing near the staff apartments, riding tricycles and playing in a sandbox that had been constructed for them inside the borders of the staff gardens. But she hadn’t noticed anyone near her age. “Why, are there others?”
“Yeah, Mom keeps trying to make me meet them when they come in to do their paperwork. Even though they don’t want anything to do with us—or at least their parents don’t.”
Lucy was silent for a minute, remembering the way Yvonne had treated her in the days leading up to evacuation. “You think it’ll be better when the war’s over?”
Jessie shrugged, his hands jammed in his pockets. “Guess it depends on whether people ever figure out we’re not the enemy. I wish they’d let us fight—I’d enlist.”
“You’re not old enough!”
“I will be,” Jessie said fiercely.
“Well, I wouldn’t. Why would I volunteer after they locked us up in here?”
“You better not let anyone hear you say that. They’ll send you to Japan and you’ll have to swear the emperor is a god.”
Lucy made a face. “I don’t speak any Japanese, so it doesn’t matter—I won’t know what they’re saying.”
They were walking down the wide firebreak road between blocks, the sun beating down on them. It was still half an hour before lunchtime, and already Lucy’s forehead was slick with perspiration and her cotton blouse clung to her skin. Being with Jessie always made her feel even warmer than she already was. Ever since he kissed her, she had replayed the moment over and over in her memory, but there hadn’t been another private walk, another chance for him to hold her hand. Maybe he wasn’t interested anymore. Maybe he’d found some other girl.
“So where are we going, anyway?” she asked, as casually as she could.
Jessie laughed. “I just said that to get us out of there—I didn’t want to get stuck with that girl.”
Lucy took a breath and tried not to sound nervous. “Want to have lunch in our block today?”
“Sure.”
He sounded happy enough with the idea, and Lucy congratulated herself as they walked toward Block Fourteen. But a surprise waited outside their barrack: Miyako was standing in the shade of the overhang, dressed in her best suit. Her peplumed jacket nipped in at her tiny waist; the skirt grazed her knees, not quite daringly. It was a shade of blue called cerulean, according to her mother, evoking June skies and the spray of waves. Miyako had released her hair from its careful paper twists, the curls blooming at her forehead and highlighting her fine features. Lucy couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her mother dressed up, and she looked both radiant and a little lost.
“Lucy!” she said when she spotted them. “Thank heavens. I was just coming to look for you. Hello,” she added, almost as an afterthought, nodding at Jessie.
“This is my friend Jessie Kadonada,” Lucy said uncertainly. “I invited him to have lunch in our mess hall.”
“Very nice to meet you,” Miyako said distractedly. “Lucy, where is my makeup box? I have an interview!”
Lucy blinked with surprise, then chagrin. She’d snuck her mother’s cosmetics box the day before, putting on a little lipstick and eyeliner before leaving for her shift, and when her mother stirred in her sleep, she’d