"Technically, I'm not suppost to bring kids to work," Josephine explained the next Monday morning as she clothed Max in Allegra's blue dress and tied a silky white bandana around her head in a gypsy fashion. "But I'm sure if I think up a good explanation. You're my cousin or something. As long as you don't talk or annoy anyone, there shouldn't be problem."

Max followed Josephine into the bathroom and watched her brush her teeth and then was promptly kicked out when Josephine began to disrobe.

"I'll tolerate visitors during my morning ritual, but when it comes to showers, it's me, myself and I."

So Max sat on the floor of Josephine's bedroom with Lex the dog's head in her lap. Samantha the cat was prowling about mischievously, occasionally rubbing her head against the sole of Max's foot.

Bored, Max began to explore Josephine's dresser, staring at the photographs and knickknacks kept there. She opened an ornate porcelain vessel and recognized the collection of gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds from her excursion to Wal-Mart but also spotted a few strange, smooth stones that Max could not identify. One was an interesting blue-purple. One was bright green and was encased in gold. One was round and an interesting off-white. There were necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

One ring she found was gold, shaped like a bizarre kind of reptile. It wrapped itself around the same round, off-white stone, clutching it in its talons. It seemed to be hissing at Max and she hissed back at it. This reptile was challenging her and she was ready for it. She slipped it onto her thumb and put it in her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Josephine came out of the bathroom, her hair slicked back, wet and plastered against her shoulders. A fluffy yellow towel was wrapped around her body. She held a green one in her left hand.

Max gagged and spit the ring into her hand, which she quickly put behind her back. "Nothing."

"You're not a world-class thief yet, Max," Josephine said. She held out a hand. "Cough it up."

"Cough what?"

"Give me what's in your hand."

Reluctantly, she gave Josephine the ring.

"A good thief," Josephine said as the ring, warm with Max's saliva, which didn't faze her in the least, was placed in her hand, "never gets caught."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am. My mother is ma'am." Josephine placed the ring on her index finger. "Ah. You have good taste, my dear. This was great-grandma Joséfina's ring. I was named after her."

"What is it?"

"It's an alligator. And that's a pearl. This was my favorite ring, so my dad gave it to me what I turned ten. It's been in my family since Joséfina brought it over from Ecuador. Her fiancé gave it to her before he died. She came to America, Spanish Harlem, to search for a new hubby."

"What's a hubby?"

"Husband. Spouse."

"Did she find one?"

"No. She got knocked up by a random john instead."

"Knocked up?"

"I'll tell you when you're older."

"How much?"

"Much-much." Josephine wrapped the green towel around her head and squeezed the water from her hair and then fluffed it up. Then she went to her vanity and sprayed something around her head, rubbed the towel in her hair again and then threw the wet towel on the carpet. Then she picked up a hairbrush. "There's a lot of stuff you need to know, kid. That's why you need to go to school."

"Why?"

"Because you don't want to go to juvie for truancy."

"And juvie is…?"

"Juvenile hall. Jail for kids."

"They put kids in jail?" Max's mind raced. "We had something like that. Solitary confinement."

"We?"

Max didn't answer Josephine's question. Instead, she went back to the porcelain jewelry box and pulled out the green and bluish-purple stones out. "What are these?"

Josephine stopped raking the hairbrush through her hair and put it down. Then she took the jewelry from Max's hands. "Lapis lazuli," she said, taking the bluish-purple stone. It was set in a gold bangle alternated with rubies. "And this is jade." The bright green stone encased in gold, marching around in circles in an elaborate choker. "Come here."

Max took careful steps towards Josephine, who took the choker and wrapped it around Max's neck.

"You look like an Egyptian goddess," Josephine said, pulling Max to the vanity mirror. "You are Hatshepsut. No—you are Nefertiti. You are Isis. Jezzer jezzeru—splendor of splendors." Josephine got up out of the vanity chair and sat Max down instead. "Sit still and close your eyes. Don't look in the mirror til I say so."

Max closed her eyes and waited. Her voluptuous lips parted ever so slightly and Josephine's heart melted. She looked so angelic.

Josephine stared at the make-up on her vanity table and selected first a subtle rose shade of blush and brushed it gently onto Max's cheeks. She had cheekbones to die for. The blush had sort of a sparkle in it, making Max's complexion glow brilliantly. Pleased with herself, Josephine meticulously lined the lips and filled them in with a dark wine colored lipstick. Then she picked up an eyeliner pencil and began to line Max's eyes, just above the lashes. Suddenly, Josephine's hand slipped and poked Max in the corner of her eye.

As soon as Max felt the tip of the pencil stabbing her, her eyes popped open and she grabbed Josephine roughly by the wrist and squeezed. She could snap it at any given moment.

"Max!" Josephine gasped with pain. She dropped the pencil. "Stop it. Let go."

"Don't hurt me."

"Don't hurt you? Max, you're hurting me!"

"I can break your wrist."

"I don't doubt it. Let go."

"Don't hurt me."

"I wouldn't hurt you. I wouldn't dream of hurting you. Damn it, let go, you little vice-gripper. What are you, a meat cleaver all of a sudden?"

Max let go. Josephine felt the blood slowly returning to her hand and fingers. Her heart was pounding. "What in God's name was that all about?"

"Don't hurt me again," Max whispered. She tore off her kerchief and she ran out of Josephine's room.