I hadn't read a book in a long time. I used to read all the time, I would read as I worked with the book binder, trying to be sneaky about it while I was supposed to be helping him, but he never minded whenever he caught me. He'd threaten me with the back of his hand, but he had never actually hit me and he was smiling when he spoke.

I missed him, I realized. Maybe not as much as I missed my mother, but far more than my father.

"They're not so bad," I said. I thought about telling him that underwear felt weird, but the thought of saying something like that made my neck feel hot. "It was pretty crazy, though. I didn't think so at the time, but now I remember stuff about before I went to the island and... it should have been impossible."