Kiki glared at her. “Maybe I wouldn’t have had to work outside the home if my husband earned enough for us to live on. Or if I’d gotten a fair break from my own relatives,” she snapped.

“Riiiiiight. In addition to bitching a lot, you throw in a hint every now and then that you think you should have gotten a share of this house.” Fiji shook her head. “But you didn’t, because you never paid any attention to Aunt Mildred. I did, because I loved her. I was interested in her life and I admired her self-sufficiency. You haven’t offered significant help. You also haven’t offered to pay toward the household expenses. Since I’m making my own living, I don’t take that too well. So, yes, I’m telling you, you have to leave tomorrow morning.”

Fiji’s kitchen was so quiet you could almost have heard a pin drop. Instead, Fiji heard the sound of Mr. Snuggly coming in the pet door. The cat came up to the table and sat with his tail wrapped neatly around his paws. Mr. Snuggly stared up at Fiji, and then fixed his gaze on her sister.

“Effing cat,” Kiki said.

“Effing woman,” the cat said.

Kiki froze. Fiji put her hand over her mouth to cover her smile.

“What did you say?” Kiki asked Fiji. She had the suspicious look of someone who thinks she is being hoaxed.

“Not a thing.”

“You’re a ventriloquist now?”

Fiji shook her head again.

Mr. Snuggly was highly offended. “Are you implying that she speaks for me? That I don’t have a mind of my own?”

Kiki’s eyes got even wider, and she looked from the cat to her sister and back again a dozen times, as if she thought that she would discover some means of voice transfer if she could catch them at the right moment.

“So why’d you really come?” Fiji asked her, to catch Kiki off-balance.

“I really did want to get away from Marty,” Kiki said. “It’s a sour marriage, and I can’t take it anymore. And he’s not . . . he hasn’t been faithful.” It mortified Kiki to admit that, and Fiji’s heart softened for a moment. “But I can’t move back in with Mom and Dad, either, not with Dad going nuts,” Kiki continued. “All Mom does is fuss about him. He can’t be left alone in the house. Sometimes he doesn’t make it to the bathroom. I’m not a nurse. I’m not cut out for that.”

Whine, whine, whine, boomed the voice. You’re not like that at all.

“What happened to your job?” Fiji was maintaining her focus with difficulty.

“I got fired because that bitch of a manager thought I was taking things home with me.”

“Without paying for them?” inquired Mr. Snuggly. He licked a paw while he waited for Kiki’s answer.

“Hell, for what they paid me, they ought to be giving me clothes,” Kiki said, not even looking at the cat. She was pretending she didn’t know words were coming from Mr. Snuggly. This was turning into the most confusing conversation Fiji had ever had.

“So you were stealing.” Fiji put down her fork. “You’re lucky she didn’t have you arrested.”

“Lucky!” Kiki said bitterly. “She’s the one Marty was seeing on the side.”

“Humans!” Mr. Snuggly said, disgusted. “Ugly.” He began cleaning his other front paw.

Delightful, said the voice.

“Some days I agree with you,” Fiji told the cat.

“Your effing cat talks? And you’re standing in judgment on me? Who’s the crazy one around here?”

“Weird doesn’t equal morally bankrupt. You need to go in the morning,” Fiji said. “It’s not only that you’re not offering help, you’re actually embarrassing me by making things worse with the media people.”

“So I have to go back to help Mom wipe Dad’s butt? I have to find a lawyer to get divorced, and I have to look for a damn job, while you just loll around here on your fat ass,” Kiki said.

Fiji looked at her sister for a long moment. “Yep, that’s about the size of it,” she said.

There was a tap at the back door that startled both of them— though not Mr. Snuggly, who looked positively pleased.

“Yes?” Fiji said, and Diederik came in. He was obviously holding himself in check with an effort, and his face was flushed. He spoke to Kiki in a choked voice. “You may not say such things to your sister,” he said. “You may not insult someone who has been kind and loving to me since I came here. We all think Fiji is beautiful. It is you who are ugly.” The boy was so menacing that Kiki, who’d risen from her chair, took a step back.

“So that’s how it is,” Kiki said, her face red and her lips pressed tight. “Robbing the cradle, Feej? You’re smarter than you look.”

Fiji stared at her sister, for the first time seeing her as a stranger, and one she didn’t particularly like. She said. “Pack up your stuff tonight.”

Kiki’s face grew even uglier, and she planted her feet to loose a volley of anger. But then she faltered.

Diederik looked like a very big boy, or a very young man, but either way you counted him, he looked formidable, Fiji thought. And Fiji hoped that she herself was projecting the confidence she felt.

Kiki deflated.

To Fiji’s relief, Kiki went into the guest bedroom without further words, slamming the door behind her. She packed as noisily as possible, slamming and banging and kneeing things until it seemed as though a poltergeist were at liberty. Fiji hoped nothing of hers was going into Kiki’s suitcase.

In the kitchen, Diederik reached out to take Fiji’s hand. She let him, and felt comfort in the contact, but Kiki had succeeded in awakening active shame in the fertile ground of Fiji’s conscience. After a minute, she withdrew her hand. “I guess you’d better leave, Diederik,” she said. “It’s going to be pretty uncomfortable here until she goes.”

“You will maybe need protection,” he said.

“I can handle her. You’re a good friend to have,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

He grinned, to her surprise. “I feel strong and tough, now!”

She would not have thought so a moment before, but she could smile, too. “You are plenty strong and tough,” she agreed.

Around suppertime, Kiki came out of the guest room and marched down to Home Cookin, without saying a word to Fiji, who was making supper for both of them.