Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [42]
"Just till the boy settles down," Uncle Hikaru had said-as if Jin would abandon his creatures. As if he would ever stay here.
Was Miles-san taking care of his charges properly? What must he think, when Jin never came back with his money? Would he think Jin had stolen it? The police had stolen it, really, but would even that extraordinary off-worlder believe Jin over the grownups? He swallowed a lump in his throat, determined not to cry again, because maybe letting go like that was why he'd fallen asleep, earlier. Although what was the point in forcing himself to stay awake when he couldn't get out? He returned to the futon and sank down in despair.
Maybe tomorrow night he could hide a screwdriver or some other tools in the room, and try to take the window or the door lock apart from the inside. Tenbury would have known how, Jin was sure. He didn't think he could pretend to be all settled down so quickly and thus lull his captors into relaxing their guard, not when he was growing more and more frantic inside. Aunt Lorna had threatened she was going to sign him right up tomorrow for Tetsu and Ken's school, because she couldn't afford to lose any more work days over him. School, he recalled, had seemed even less easy to escape from than-Jin refused to think of this narrow rented row-house as home.
The door lock clicked. Aunt Lorna, checking up on him? He could still hear Uncle Hikaru's snores. He rolled over to face the wall, hitched his covers up over his shoulder, and scrunched his eyes shut.
"Jin?" a shy voice whispered. "Are you asleep?"
Jin rolled back, both relieved and annoyed. It was only Mina. "Yes," he growled.
A short silence. "No, you're not."
"What do you want?" Some forgotten doll or stuffed toy, he supposed, although she'd taken a basket of them with her to her temporary bed on the couch downstairs.
The door rumbled, sliding into its slot, and small feet padded to the side of his futon. He rolled over onto his elbow again and stared up at her, staring down at him. She shared Jin's brown eyes and tousled mop of black hair, but she was taller and less chubby than he remembered from fourteen months ago. Then, she hadn't even started school yet-now she was in her second year. She seemed less . . . bewildered-looking, somehow.
"If I let you out," she said, "will you take me with you?"
"Huh?" Startled, Jin sat up and hugged his knees. What, she wasn't just lost on the way to the bathroom? "No, of course not. Are you crazy?"
Her face fell. "Oh." She retreated to the door and started to pull it shut behind her.
"No, wait!" Jin hissed, lumbering up.
Next door, the snores stopped. They both froze. After a moment, there came a creaking and a sort of gurgling-drain noise, and the snores started up again.
"We can't talk here," Jin whispered. "Let's go downstairs."
She seemed to think this over, then nodded, waiting in the hallway while he wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and trailed after her. Jin shoved the door closed again very slowly and quietly. The stairs squeaked under their tiptoeing feet, but no one came after them.
"Don't turn the light on," Jin said, keeping his voice low. There was enough light leaking from what Uncle Hikaru called the one-butt kitchen, in a niche off the living-dining room, to keep from tripping on things.
Mina settled back in her twisted nest of covers on the couch. Jin sat on the edge of Uncle Hikaru's chair and stared around.
Mina asked, "Do you remember Daddy?"
"Sort of. Some."
"I don't. Just his picture in the family shrine Mommy set up."
"You were three." Jin had been seven when their father had died. Four years ago-it seemed half a lifetime. He remembered his mother's extravagant grief and anger rather better, and how seldom he'd seen her after that-as if one death had stolen both parents, even before the policewomen had come for her. "Doesn't Aunt Lorna keep the family shrine anymore?"
"She let me keep it in my room for a while, but then we ran out of space