"Maybe you should go visit your Mom,” said the driver. “You know, she loves you. Families are there for when you are in trouble."

Sith's mother lived in Thailand and they never spoke. Her mother's family kept asking for favors: money, introductions, or help with getting a job. Sith didn't speak to them any longer.

"My family is only trouble."

The driver shut up and drove.

Finally Soriya opened. Sith went straight to Dara's shop and dumped all the phones on the blue countertop. “Can you take these back?"

"We only do exchanges. I can give a new phone for an old one.” Dara looked thoughtful. “Don't worry. Leave them here with me, I'll go sell them to a guy in the old market, and give you your money tomorrow.” He smiled in approval. “This is very sensible."

He passed one phone back, the one with video and email. “This is the best one, keep this."

Dara was so competent. Sith wanted to sink down onto him like a pillow and stay there. She sat in the shop all day, watching him work. One of the guys from the games shop upstairs asked, “Who is this beautiful girl?"

Dara answered proudly, “My girlfriend."

Dara drove her back on the Dream and at the door to her house, he chuckled. “I don't want to go.” She pressed a finger against his naughty lips, and smiled and spun back inside from happiness.

She was in the ground-floor garage. She heard something like a rat scuttle. In her bag, the telephone rang. Who were these people to importune her, even if they were dead? She wrenched the mobile phone out of her bag and pushed the green button and put the phone to her ear. She waited. There was a sound like wind.

A child spoke to her, his voice clogged as if he was crying. “They tied my thumbs together."