"You wanna play with us?" Marcus asked with a grin missing teeth. He peeked his head through the broken board in the corner of the barn.
The girl was startled, and stared at him wide-eyed. She didn't know what he was asking.
"She's probably too stupid to talk," Jon whispered to Sean outside the barn wall.
"I'm not shtupish," the girl announced softly, standing. She crawled outside to talk more to the boys, so they would know she wasn't stupid. "I know lotsh of shingsh an' booksh an' shongsh," she listed off in her whistling little voice, shielding her eyes from the sunlight.
"Look at her teeth!" Sean marveled, bending down into her face. He reached out and pulled her lips away to get a better look, and the girl did nothing to stop him. The girl remembered that people did that a lot at the cold, clean room before, and she was supposed to let them do it.
"Cool!" Sean marveled, as did his brothers.
"Come with us," Marcus insisted, grabbing her hand and running off with her. She couldn't run, though, and tripped onto her hands. "Are you hurt?"
She stood back up and assumed her awkward posture. "Not sho fasht," she suggested, letting Marcus take her hand again to lead her at a slower pace.
"It's 'cuz of that shit on your back, isn't it," Jon grunted, shoving his hands in his pocket as he walked with Sean alongside the other two. He was embarrassed for the youngest – boys should never hold girls' hands! "Why do you have that shit there anyway?"
"You saw it, Jon, it's not poop, it's skin and stuff," Sean corrected.
"Shit means stuff, Sean, you dumbass," Jon snickered back.
"Were you born with it?" Marcus asked.
"It grew," she answered simply.
"OK, grab some rocks," Sean instructed the girl, gathering some pebbles of his own.
Marcus let go the girl's hand to grab stones. They'd led her to a quiet area just out of town, behind a ridge. All four children got a handful of stones and Jon began the game.
Reeling back and chucking them hard as they could, the boys threw the rocks at lizards skittering to and fro. They were missing, but the girl understood the game. She threw the rocks, too.
"Got one!" Jon announced, and he jogged over to his kill. He picked up the little lizard by the tail and brought it over to them with a proud smile. Laying it on the ground after they'd had a look, he went back to throwing stones.
The boys were jealous and tried harder, but the girl just stared at the lizard with her big, colorful eyes.
"What is she doing?" Jon asked impatiently.
"Itsh dead," she responded, squinting up at him. "Now you're shposhed to open it, shee itsh inshide-sh."
"What the hell'd she just say?" Jon asked, hands on hips.
"Use your pocketknife, Jon, open it up like she said," Sean insisted, bending down beside the lizard, as the rest did.
"That might be cool," Jon responded, prepping his little knife before slicing the thing open long-ways. With a few more cuts, he peeled back its belly skin.
The girl pointed and touched the guts of the thing. "Eshophogush, shtomach, liver, shmall inteshtine," she rattled off, digging her finger inside the goo. "Pretty inshide, colorsh. Kidneysh, ovariesh-"
"Huh?" Sean interrupted.
Jon smacked him behind the head. "Cuz you don't pay attention in class, dumbass."
"What's her name," Sean asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Yeah, what's your name," Marcus chimed in.
She stared at them.
"What did your mom and dad call you?" Marcus added.
"I don't have mom and dad."
"You should have a name," Jon insisted.
"Let's call her Dumbass," Sean laughed.
"What do you want for a name? What names do you know?" Marcus asked, ignoring his brother.
She thought, trying to remember names.
"You're a girl, so you need a girl name. What are some girl names?" Marcus asked his brothers.
"Vanesha," the girl mentioned. "Thatsh one."
"Yeah, it is. I don't know any Vanessa girls," Marcus reflected. "You should come to school with us. School is a place where you learn things and after you're done you're a grown up."
"She can't, she smells like pig shit," Sean interrupted.
"She smells fine now, dumbass," Jon corrected.
"They don't let girls go to school when they don't wear shoes or dresses," Sean insisted.
"Darla wears boys clothes, too," Marcus pointed out, "And she's a girl."
"She'd scare the people at school," Jon argued, staring at the pointed ears that were starting to peek out from beneath the edge of her head-scarf.
"We're not scared," Marcus countered.
"Well, maybe she can go to school. We'll take you with us, tomorrow, ok?"
Vanessa stood stoic. She wasn't sure that it was a good idea, but if school made you smarter, made you an adult, she was pretty sure she should go. "Shank you," she said seriously.
The children spoke more, mainly the boys arguing while Vanessa watched. But when the first sun began to set, she insisted to the boys that she had to go back, so that she would have the poop shoveled before their mother came for the nightly roam.
A devilish grin spread across Sean's face, and he turned to climb up the ridge, supporting his hands and feet with stones as he scaled the 10-foot thing. They'd usually walked round it.
Marcus followed, as little brothers like to do. But Marcus lost his footing half-way up and fell back. He twisted to catch himself by the hands, but only turned enough to land hard on one arm. There was a snap.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Jon cussed at Sean, who didn't seem to know what happened as he peered down from the top, and scooped Marcus up in his arms. Quick as could be, the elder boy ran off with the youngest wailing against his chest, middle boy running along in front of them (to tell mother it wasn't his fault before Jon could tell on him).
Vanessa hobbled after them as fast as she could, which wasn't very fast at all, but she could hear their footfalls and breathing disappear in the distance. She was alone, in the desert, again.