Chapter II

Chapter II
Maria tossed and turned all night. She just couldn’t sleep. The mere thought of leaving again was repulsive enough to keep her up for a week. She got up and padded softly out of the bedroom that their family shared, noticing that while her younger siblings still slumbered peacefully, her mother was not there. She crept silently to the other room in their house. Her mother was sitting at their table, her back to the only exit from their house, her eyes on Maria.
“Go back to bed.”
“Why are you still up?”
“Maria, I said go back to bed.” There was a tone in Linnea’s voice that Maria could not argue with. She left the room and flopped gently onto her side of the bed, careful not to wake her younger siblings. Maria lay there for hours, but she did not go back to sleep.