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ear of my favorite stuffed animalsticking out of the top of the box. My gray cat had sat on my pillow since I had learned to make my own bed. But it looked so out of place on the motel bedspread, and I wished I was back in my own bed, looking at the green crayon letters Hemingway had drawn on my light blue walls.
    I stood with my back to the side of the wide front window and rested my hand on a little round table. I pointed to my left. “We should leave this clear, too. So we can get into the bathroom.”
    The door to the bathroom hung from the top of the doorframe and folded up to one side when you opened it, like an accordion fan.
    Hemingway followed me inside.
    â€œLooks like Mrs. Early missed a few spots on this one.” I moved a tiny shampoo bottle and sat on the edge of the tub. I leaned forward onto the side of the sink next to me and rested my chin on my arms. I tried not to think of anything Early touching the tub that I was going to be using.
    Hem put down the lid on the toilet on the other side of the sink and made himself comfortable. “Maybe that baby got in the way.” He arched his back and pushed his stomach out hard.
    â€œHush, now, you two,” Mama said. She held herhand to the side of her mouth, as if she was trying not to smile. “She was nice enough to give us these two-for-one coupons, and heaven knows we can use all the help we can get.”
    A plastic tray on the back of the toilet held four glasses and an empty plastic ice bucket, made to look like it was brown wood. I grabbed one of the drinking glasses and picked at a loose end of the cellophane, unwrapping the glass from its crinkly plastic cocoon.
    â€œWhat’s it say on the glass there, Harper Lee?” Hem tilted his head to the side and looked to be trying to get his mouth around the sounds of the letters on the side of the glass.
    I held it up to the light and made out the faded green letters. “Says here Knotty Pine Luxury Cabins.” I turned on the faucet and waited for the water to get cold. “These don’t seem like cabins to me.” I filled up my glass and took a long drink. “I always thought cabins to be standing alone in some trees all by themselves.” I listened to the toilet flush on the other side of our bathroom wall.
    â€œThese rooms are stuck together tight.” Hem reached back and flushed the toilet, as if he was trying to answer the people next door. “Anyway, I thoughtthis was the Knotty Pine Deluxe Motor Hotel.” He said “de-luxe” as if it was two separate words.
    â€œPeople can make anything fancy with the right words,” I said. “Hand me my blue notebook, would you, Hem?”
    I sat back down on the edge of the tub and leaned forward onto the sink. Maybe if I thought about my stories or poems it would seem more like home.
    I could see Mama through the doorway, sitting cross-legged on one of the double beds. She had a white tablet on her lap, and she looked to be doing some figuring of her own.
    Hem tossed me my notebook and sat down next to Mama with his crayons. “Can we still have school at home if this isn’t my real home?”
    Mama tilted her head but kept her eyes on her tablet, like she wasn’t really listening.
    â€œMama,” I said, “you ought to think on letting Hemingway go to the regular old kindergarten.”
    She turned the tablet over on her lap and looked across at me. “You know that wouldn’t work out, Harper Lee. Kindergarten’s only half a day. I can’t be leaving work to take him back and forth.”
    I stood in the doorway. “He could walk home onhis own and take care of himself for a few hours, Mama. Just until I get home.”
    She took a deep breath. “One of these days, things will be different. When I get you and Hem all the way through school, maybe I can take my own self back to school.” She sat up against the headboard. “My mother always did