My insides turned to boiling rage and my intestines knotted in fury, but I went to the cupboard in the kitchen and retrieved cleaning supplies anyway. I fetched a broom from the closet and stomped back to Margarete’s room. I pretended each stair was Margarete’s head and gave it a good stomp with my heel. There went her nose, crunched under the balls of my feet. There’s one of her eyes, put out by my toe.

I opened the windows in Margarete’s room so that any errant soot would have a place to go. I had never cleaned a hearth before and I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured that was a good start.

“I’m going to go out on the town with Mother. When I get back, if there is anything missing from this room, I will have you beaten.” Margarete threatened when she caught me gazing with longing at the things that used to be mine. “And Marina, if I find one flake of ash on this carpet, I’ll make sure you never see the light of day again.”

With that, Margarete left and I was alone, seething next to a dirty hearth