Summary

The narrator describes moving from place to place for four years with her mother, among women who—like themselves—were martyrs to the revolution. Sandy has a relationship with another woman, which keeps her and Birdie in one place for almost a year, but they otherwise live more transiently. Birdie feels incomplete, like a “half-girl,” but finds the frequent relocations somehow comforting because the impermanence suggests that things might return to what they once were.

When she needs to, Sandy works to earn money to keep them afloat. She also tutors Birdie, although her competence as a teacher and her interest fall short in math and science. Sandy promises Birdie that their false identities and roaming lifestyles will end when Cole and Deck return, which she assures Birdie will happen when the time is right. Sandy loses a lot of weight, takes a new interest in...