The girls had never been in a hotel room as guests — they had been in a great many hotels, because their mother worked in them, and Nora spent about six minutes examining the bathroom with a professional air before announcing that there were “too many towels.”

I ordered food.

They ate it.

Maya talked for about forty minutes without stopping, mostly about a cat in the Elizabeth sublet.

And at about eight o’clock, Evelyn put them to bed in the second bedroom, and then she came out and sat on a sofa and looked at me, and I said something about coming back in the morning.

And she said, “Sit down.”