Two days passed before Vanna and Jenny found themselves in the kitchen at the same time as the new girl, whose name was Ivona. Sergei hadn’t come back to the farm, and a new guard with greasy hair and a full beard was on duty when Zoya was away. He smelled like he hadn’t showered in months, and Vanna didn’t want to think about what could be trapped in his beard or under his fingernails. He stationed himself with his back to the door and scowled at them.
Vanna tried to ignore him. She was worried about Sergei. Sometimes he did disappear for a few days doing errands for Vlad. She convinced herself that’s what was he was doing and concentrated on Ivona.
The girl had brown eyes and limp, straw-like hair that hung to her shoulders. Except for her belly, she was waiflike and pale. Her teeth were yellow and crooked—she could have used an orthodontist. But that would be a luxury for a Russian immigrant.
She tried to draw the girl out, using the same combination of pigeon English and gestures she’d used with Sergei, but Ivona wouldn’t make eye contact and sat hunched over, as if she was folding into herself, trying to disappear.
“When are you due?” Vanna asked. She shot a glance toward the guard. He stared back, his expression hard and flat. She’d assumed he didn’t understand English; now she wasn’t sure.
“Nothing.” Ivona said only the one word, but her Slavic accent was heavy.
Vanna shook her head. “When does baby come?” Vanna patted her own belly.
Ivona looked up. “Soon.”
“Vlad?” Vanna asked.
Ivona nodded.
Vanna felt a stab of anguish. Another girl impregnated by Vlad. Jenny was right. She, Vanna, was just another girl who had been knocked up. Nobody special. But then, why had he treated her like she was? Had she imagined it? She fingered her earrings.
“Where are you from?” Vanna asked.
“Latvia,” Ivona answered without looking up.
“How long are you here?”
“My cousin come Northbrook. He meet Vlad. Vlad say to tell me I get big job here. Make much money.”
“So when did you come?”
“One year.”
Vanna gave her a cheerless nod. Another soul who thought the streets of America were paved with gold.
Now Ivona looked up. “How long you?”
“About six months.”
“But you American. Her too.” She motioned to Jenny.
“So what?” Jenny said. “We’re all in the same boat.”
Ivona frowned. “Boat? What boat?”
“She means situation,” Vanna explained.
“Maybe, maybe no.”
“What does that mean?” Jenny asked.
“Maybe you okay.”
“What do you mean ‘okay’? How could we be?’”
Ivona gazed long and hard at Jenny. “You know.”
“Know what? What are you talking about?”
The guard started toward them. Zoya didn’t like the girls talking among themselves, and she must have told him to break up any conversation that lasted more than a few seconds. Ivona spoke sharply to him in Russian. The guard stopped. She held up her palm and wiggled her fingers.
“Stupid peasant,” Ivona said. “I say we talk nail polish.”
“Ivona,” Vanna said impatiently. “Tell us what you mean by ‘okay.’”
Ivona lay her hand down on the table. She gazed at Vanna with an expression that said she had nothing left to live for. Then she heaved a sigh. “I tell.” She paused and stole a glance at the guard. “Before here I in apartment. Girl start to have baby. They take away. She not back.”
Vanna remembered they were supposed to be talking about nail polish. She spread her hands like Ivona. “Maybe they adopted out the baby and put the girl back on the street. That’s what they do. It’s their beezniss,” she said mimicking a Russian accent.
The guard jerked up his head. Vanna bit her lip. That was a mistake.
Ivona shook her head so forcefully her pale hair flew around her face. She tapped her lips. “No. I speak Russian. Guards talk.”
“About the girl?”
“About all.”
“What about them?”
Ivona leaned toward them. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
The smelly guard scowled and took a step forward. Vanna guessed they had only a few seconds before he forced them back to their rooms.
“The babies adopt. But the mothers…they kill. Then sell parts. To hospitals.”
Jenny blanched. “What? That’s crazy. How do you know?”
Ivona pointed to her ear. “They say can get lots money for heart or liver, so they sell. And kill mother.”
Jenny clapped a hand over her mouth.
“That can’t be true,” Vanna spit out. “You’re lying.”
Ivona threw Vanna a patronizing look just as the guard hurried over. He forced them to stand, marched Ivona upstairs, and slammed the door. Then he did the same to Vanna and Jenny.