Page 17 of The Little Liar

“No.”

Udo’s eyes widened. “Who else was with you?”

“Fannie.”

“Who is Fannie?”

“She’s in my class. My brother likes her. He wants to kiss her.”

Udo laughed. Pinto laughed with him.

“And where is Fannie now?”

“She went home.”

Udo stood up.

“Do you know who I am, Nico?”

“No. But you have the black coat. My mother says I should stay away from the men in the black coats.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. That’s what she says.”

Udo scratched his chin. He felt the mother’s fear in the boy’s voice.

“Can I go be with my family now?” Nico said.

Udo walked to the window. He pulled back the curtain. He saw, in the lamplight, a dusting of snow covering Kleisouras Street.

Snow, he thought.And they call this boy “Snow.”Was it some kind of sign? Udo believed in signs. Perhaps he was meant to move into this house, find this boy, use him for some purpose.

“I have an idea, Nico. How you can be a hero to your family. Would you like that?”

Nico started to cry. The weight of this encounter was taking its toll. He missed his papa. He missed his mama. It was already dark outside.

“Can they come back to the house?” he asked.

“I’ll tell you what,” Udo said, smacking his lips. “If you do what I ask, you can all be together again.”

He leaned over, his chin just a few inches from Nico’s eyes.

“Now, will you help me?”

Nico felt himself swallow. He wondered if Fannie had gotten home. He wished he had left with her.

Wait. What happened to Fannie?

We last saw her peeking through the window curtains with Nico. But what was she doing there?

Well. Remember that children are still children. Even under the most dire circumstances, they will create moments to be exactly their age.

Fannie, at twelve, was of the age when her thoughts were often about boys, how they looked and how they looked at her, and one boy in particular, Nico, who, as mentioned, sat in the desk in front of her at school. He was less severe-looking than some of the older boys, with their pimples and newly sprouted hairs above their lips. Nico was almost... pretty.During class, Fannie would stare at him from behind, seeing how his thick blond hair came to a point just above the collar of his white shirt, how sometimes it was wet in the morning when he first sat down. She imagined reaching over and running her hand through it.

On the day Fannie and the other students arrived at the Krispis home, she looked for Nico but did not see him. She went to the stairs, where she noticed the crawl space door nudged open. She saw Nico peeking out. He smiled but pulled the door back closed. Fannie knocked.

“What are you doing in there?”