The Guest Room (32 page)

Then I lay there all alone until it was dark. I lay there until I fell into deep sleep, and this time I dreamed. I dreamed of the cottage, but all of us girls were princesses and the only men we saw were our fathers. We all had our mothers, and they fed us bird's milk cake and sugary pastila, and even though we all slept in one big room, every night our mothers would come tuck us in and kiss us good night.

And in the morning? In the morning I woke up. I looked out the window at the moon, setting against a deep blue bedspread of sky. There it was. Full and round and incredibly white. I thought of dancer girl from Kiev. Her show. Down the corridor I heard two nurses laughing.
He got you that? For your birthday? Seriously?
I pulled my arms from beneath the sheet and rolled over.
Don't judge him!
More laughter.
Well, then, don't judge me!

In my mind, I imagined all the things halfway house could be, but it was just word game. I knew.

And I watched the moon and knew this was not the end. This was not even halfway. People still danced. People still laughed. This was just morning, and I was just nineteen and somehow, despite everyone and everything, I was alive. I sat up in bed and took a sip of the apple juice from the cup on the nightstand. I fluffed my hair. I hoped Eve would come for me soon.

As always, thanks are in order. I learned a great deal from all of these readers, but I am especially grateful to each of them for sharing some very specific expertise:

Lauren Bowerman—criminal prosecution and the law. (This is the fourth time that Lauren has appeared in my Acknowledgments. That might be a record.)

Mark Flowers and James Yeaton—re-breathers, sucking chest wounds, and EMT rush. (This is James's second appearance.)

Haig Kaprielian—CODIS, crime scenes, and the morgue.

Noelia Mann—the sex trafficking of underage girls.

Khatchig Mouradian—Armenian history and names. (This is Khatchig's second appearance.)

Steven Sonet—civil law (and how to be civil in a negotiation).

Anna Stevens—strippers.

Marc Tischler—cadavers. (This is Marc's third appearance.)

Ani Tchaghlasian—investment banking.

Jacob Tomsky, author of
Heads in Beds,
who explained to me the difference between a front desk manager and a rooms executive of a hotel.

And Scot Villeneau—the Makarov pistol.

I also want to thank novelist Stephen Kiernan: he didn't read an early draft, but he was a great ear when we would bike and discuss the story.

Among the books I read that I still think about are Rachel Lloyd's
Girls Like Us
; Caitlin Moran's
How to Be a Woman;
and
Desert Nights
by Edik Baghdasaryan and Ara Manoogian. I also want to express my admiration for novelist Vahan Zanoyan. His two novels about an Armenian girl who is abducted into the world of Russian and Middle Eastern sex slavery,
A Place Far Away
and
The Doves of Ohanavank
, are riveting.

I am grateful as well to my early readers: my lovely bride, Victoria Blewer; our astute young daughter, Grace Experience; my gifted editor, Jenny Jackson; and my splendid agent, Jane Gelfman.

Finally, I want to express my appreciation for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery & Trafficking. CAST is one of the many important organizations that work to assist people trafficked for the purpose of forced labor, sexual slavery, and other instances of appalling human rights violations. Their website is
www.castla.org
. I also want to thank Girls Educational and Mentoring Services—founded by Rachel Lloyd of
Girls Like Us
—for their efforts on behalf of commercially and sexually exploited young women. Learn more about GEMS at
www.gems-girls.org
.

Chris Bohjalian is the author of eighteen books, including such
New York Times
bestsellers as
The Light in the Ruins, The Sandcastle Girls, The Double Bind,
and
Skeletons at the Feast
. His novel
Midwives
was a number one
New York Times
bestseller and a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been
translated into thirty languages, and three of his books have
become movies (
Secrets of Eden, Midwives,
and
Past the Bleachers
). His novels
have been chosen as Best Books of the Year by the
Washington Post,
the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
the
Hartford Courant,
the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage,
and
Salon
. He lives in Vermont. Visit him at
www.chrisbohjalian.com
or on Facebook or Twitter.