When we got back to the pink house in the woods, it smelled sweet again, because Betty Allen was baking another one of her seventeen cakes. This one was pineapple upside-down.

“I have never in my life had a pineapple upside-down cake,” I said to Betty Allen.

“Well, we will have to rectify that, I am sure,” said Betty Allen. “In the meantime, I would like it if Burke Allen explained to me why he wasn’t in school today.”

“I was helping Louisiana,” said Burke.

“You can’t keep skipping school, Burke,” said Betty Allen. “After a time, it will catch up with you, and you will find that life has closed its doors to you. You don’t want life to close its doors to you, do you?”

“No, ma’am,” said Burke. He looked down at his feet.

“Open doors,” said Betty Allen. “That is what we want — doors that are open to us.” She put her hand on Burke’s head and left it there a minute, and then she turned to me. “Sweetie,” she said, “is that the same dress you had on yesterday?”

“It is,” I said. “My other dresses are in my luggage, and my luggage is currently unavailable to me.”

“Why is your luggage currently unavailable to you?”

“Many terrible and complicated things have happened,” I said.

“Well, what are they?”

I stood in the sweet-smelling house and looked into Betty Allen’s gentle face. She looked back at me.

I wanted to tell her that I didn’t even know who I was. I wanted to tell her that I had been left. I wanted to tell her that she reminded me of the Blue Fairy.

What I said was, “Have you ever read the story of Pinocchio?”

Burke gave me a shove. He said, “Louisiana’s granny ain’t feeling good. Can Louisiana stay here with us?”

“What is wrong with your granny?” said Betty Allen.

“She is having tooth problems,” I said. “And she needs some time to recuperate. She is extremely unwell. She is also a liar.”

Burke gave me another little shove. He said, “Can Louisiana stay or not?”

“Well, for heaven’s sake, Burke,” said Betty Allen. “Of course Louisiana can stay.” She kept her eyes on me. She gave me a very serious look, and then she smiled the most beautiful smile and reached out her hand and placed it on the top of my head just the same as she had done with Burke. It felt nice.

“Thank you, Mama,” said Burke.

“Thank you, Mrs. Allen,” I said.

“Why don’t you two go and wash up,” said Betty Allen. “Supper is going to be ready soon.”

At the dinner table that night, I sat next to Grandfather Burke.

He said, “Looka here. There she is. Setting right at the table, as pretty as you please. You need you a phone book to set on so as you can reach the table?”

“Don’t pick on her, Grandpap,” said Burke.

“Pick on her? I ain’t picking on her. I’m glad to see her is all.” He winked at me.

“Daddy,” said Burke’s father, “you let her alone now. Let her eat.”

The dinner was fried chicken and green beans and mashed potatoes, and I ate everything set before me and it was all very good, but truly I wasn’t even certain that I was there.

I kept imagining the dark alley of the Louisiana Five-and-Dime.

I kept hearing Burke say, “The curse ain’t your curse.”

I kept seeing Betty Allen smile at me.

There was vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. We each had our own little cut-glass bowl. There were peanuts sprinkled on top of the chocolate sauce.

I ate all my ice cream. I scraped the bowl with my spoon, and then Grandfather Burke slid his bowl of ice cream over so that it was sitting right in front of me.

I looked down at Grandfather Burke’s bowl.

The glass was twinkling in the light. It looked very pretty. It was dark outside, and there were lights on inside and the bowl was catching all the light, and everybody was around the table and the bowl was full of ice cream and chocolate sauce and peanuts, and I felt like I was right on the verge of understanding something.

And then Grandfather Burke said, “That’s for you, doodlebug.”

I stared down at the beautiful bowl, and I started to cry.

“Why are you crying?” he said.

I shook my head.

“Leave her alone, Grandpap,” said Burke.

“I ain’t done nothing to her except to give her my dessert.”

I was crying too hard to pick up my spoon, and that is something that has never happened to me before.

“What ails her?” said the grandfather.

“She misses her granny,” said Burke.

“I do not miss my granny!” I said.

Grandfather Burke took hold of my hand. In a very gentle voice, he said, “Go on and eat it, darling. Take what is offered to you.”

Holding on to his horse hoof gave me some courage and comfort, and after a while, I stopped crying and picked up my spoon.

“There you go, honey,” said Betty Allen.

I ate the whole bowl of ice cream without once letting go of Grandfather Burke’s hand.

“That’s the way to do it,” he said. “That’s just right.”

The peanuts on top of the sundae were particularly good.

The house smelled like pineapple upside-down cake.

Well, the whole world was upside down.

But it was still spinning.

Wasn’t it?