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Show voices echoed up from the dining room. But the second floor was still. To make sure Pilar had left her room, Kim stood in the hallway outside her door, listening. There was no sound. She knocked softly. When no one answered, she turned the knob slowly and peered through the door. Pilar's room was one of the few single rooms on the second floor. It was quite bare. Except for a colored picture of Jesus above her bed and a picture of her family, nothing hung on the walls. The bed ran along the wall. Flimsy cheesecloth curtains hung in front of the window. Kim started her search behind the door, then under the bed. Unsuccessful in in finding what she was looking for in either place, she went through the tiny closet, pulling skirts and dresses away from the wall. She ran her hand along the shelf which bordered the closet. Nothing but a stack of magazines and some school books. Frustrated, she pulled out each of the dresser drawers, carefully lifting and replacing underwear, blouses and socks. Nothing. It's got to be in the room, she said to herself. She re-checked under the bed. Where else could Pilar hide it? Her stomach was empty and gurgling. She walked into the washroom where she could at least get a drink of water for dinner. She reached into the medicine cabinet for a paper drinking cup. As she was turning on the old fashioned white ceramic water tap, she noticed the black plastic container which had held her casettes. It was stuffed in the garbage can 97 |