Chapter 5.1

The first weekend posed a dilemma for Nyla. She didn’t know what to do with herself. All the Brauns seemed to be busy with one thing or another, and Nyla wanted to stay out of their way. The best she could do was keep to herself in her room. At a loss as to how to occupy the endless hours, she spent all of Saturday lying on her bedroom floor, gazing up at the ceiling. Her head felt hollow, the same way her chest did – as if someone had taken a dull spoon and scraped out all her insides.

That first night in the house, she had quickly realized the bed was too soft, too foreign to lay on comfortably. The cots she had slept on all her life were hard, the thin mattresses doing little to cushion the metal bars that ran through their centers. After tossing and turning for several hours, she had grabbed the flattest pillow and lightest blanket and laid out on the floor. The plush carpet cushioned her just enough to keep her hips from aching. Once comfortable, she had fall