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But Ender winked at her and smiled, freezing her in place. "Grego has given me a little gift. It's the only thing he has to give me, and he made it himself, so it means all the more. I like him so much that I think I'll never let him go."
Grego snarled and struggled again, madly, to break free.
"Why are you doing this!" said Ela.
"He's expecting Grego to act like a human being," said Miro. "It needs doing, and nobody else has bothered to try."
"I've tried," said Ela.
Olhado spoke up from his place on the floor. "Ela's the only one here who keeps us civilized."
Quim shouted from the other room. "Don't you tell that bastard anything about our family!"
Ender nodded gravely, as if Quim had offered a brilliant intellectual proposition. Miro chuckled and Ela rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed beside Quara.
"We're not a very happy home," said Miro.
"I understand," said Ender. "With your father so recently dead."
Miro smiled sardonically. Olhado spoke up again. "With Father so recently alive, you mean."
Ela and Miro were in obvious agreement with this sentiment. But Quim shouted again. "Don't tell him anything!"
"Did he hurt you?" Ender asked quietly. He did not move, even though Grego's urine was getting cold and rank.
Ela answered. "He didn't hit us, if that's what you mean."
But for Miro, things had gone too far. "Quim's right," said Miro. "It's nobody's business but ours."
"No," said Ela. "It's his business."
"How is it his business?" asked Miro.
"Because he's here to speak Father's death," said Ela.
"Father's death!" said Olhado. "Chupa pedras! Father only died three weeks ago!"
"I was already on my way to speak another death," said Ender. "But someone did call for a speaker for your father's death, and so I'll speak for him."
"Against him," said Ela.
"For him," said Ender.
"I brought you here to tell the truth," she said bitterly, "and all the truth about Father is against him."
Silence pressed to the corners of the room, holding them all still, until Quim walked slowly through the doorway. He looked only at Ela. "You called him," he said softly. "You."
"To tell the truth!" she answered. His accusation obviously stung her; he did not have to say how she had betrayed her family and her church to bring this infidel to lay bare what had been so long concealed. "Everybody in Milagre is so kind and understanding," she said. "Our teachers overlook little things like Grego's thievery and Quara's silence. Never mind that she hasn't said a word in school, ever! Everybody pretends that we're just ordinary children--the grandchildren of Os Venerados, and so brilliant, aren't we, with a zenador and both biologistas in the family! Such prestige. They just look the other way when Father gets himself raging drunk and comes home and beats Mother until she can't walk!"
"Shut up!" shouted Quim.
"Ela," said Miro.
"And you, Miro, Father shouting at you, saying terrible things until you run out of the house, you run, stumbling because you can hardly see--"
"You have no right to tell him!" said Quim.
Olhado leapt to his feet and stood in the middle of the room, turned around to look at them all with his unhuman eyes. "Why do you still want to hide it?" he asked softly.
