Up close, Elena could see the hollow shadows beneath their eyes and the faint bluish tint of their lips. Hunger had a particular look; anyone who had grown up the way she had could recognize it instantly.
“What are you girls doing out here in the rain?” she asked softly.
For a long moment, none of them spoke. Then the oldest finally answered, her voice so quiet the wind nearly carried it away.
“We… we’re trying to figure out where to sleep.”
The sentence hit Elena like a punch she hadn’t braced for.
“Where are your parents?” she asked carefully.
The girl lowered her eyes.
“We don’t have any.”
The other three stayed silent, watching Elena with a kind of wary stillness that suggested they had already learned the world wasn’t always kind to children who had nowhere to go.
Elena brushed damp hair away from the youngest girl’s face.
“You must be freezing,” she said. “Why don’t you come inside for a minute?”
