"So you're almost naked?" Prudence asked, her face wrinkling with disgust.
"Yes. That's the point." The younger girls all shuddered at this while the older ones-except Prudence-adopted a dreamy look. Samantha continued the story with Remy kissing Vienna and pushing her down into the sand. She skipped over the rest of the scene, picking it back up in the hotel, where an assassin leaps out of the closet to attack Remy. The toddlers gasped at this, some pulling their nightgowns over their heads. Remy and the assassin roll across the floor, the assassin trying to stab Remy until Vienna breaks a wine bottle over the assassin's head. "That's all for tonight," Samantha announced to a chorus of groans.
"Oh, come on, read another chapter. Please?" Helena begged. The other girls pleaded with Samantha to read a little more, as they did every night.
"I can't keep you up all night and have you falling asleep during class tomorrow. Miss Brigham will get suspicious." Samantha put the book into her apron and then climbed off the bed. She scooped up Rebecca, who fell asleep on Samantha's shoulder. She tucked the little girl into bed, kissing her on the cheek before saying goodnight the way she wished she could remember her own mother doing. Then she lay down to get what sleep she could.
When she drifted off to sleep, she found herself standing in a hotel room similar to the one in the book, only blown up to giant proportions. When she saw herself in a mirror, she realized the room looked enormous because she was a toddler like Rebecca.
She heard footsteps in the hall outside her door. "Mama?" she called out in a tiny voice. "Mama, you there?"
The footsteps began to fade away from the door. "Mama!" Samantha screamed. She tried to open the door, but it was too high up for her to reach. "Mama, come back!" she wailed.
The door opened and Samantha dashed into the hallway in time to see a woman with black hair to her waist disappearing down the hall. Samantha ran after her as fast she could, but her chubby little legs couldn't move fast enough. "Mama, come back!" she howled again. She collapsed to the floor as the woman vanished without looking back.
Samantha woke up and heard the door to the dining room close. A shape tiptoed along the beds, stopping in the middle of the row. In the dim light she made out Helena crawling back into bed. After a moment Samantha fell asleep again and by the morning it seemed as fuzzy as the dream.