"I suppose that's good, then. You an only child?"

He laughs. "Yeah."

"Is uninvited telepathy a big problem in your family?"

"Do you wish you weren't?"

"Nah, not really, I just read novels and then I explain what the story was about to Bella and then she goes on and on about all the things that are wrong with it and then," says Andi, "I have a book report."

...Ethan laughs.

"Oh hell no," says Trouble.

"And if it's science fiction or fantasy and somebody reads somebody's mind she always latches right onto that," says Andi. "So I know how she'd be about it if I were reading people's minds."

"Why not?"

"Skip it," says Trouble. "Juuuust skip it."

"Aha," says Ethan. "But on the other hand, how would she know?"

"Why?"

"Sometimes in the books people can tell. Anyway I wouldn't do it, she'd be so upset. She writes her notebooks - like her diary, I mean - in cipher because one time years ago she caught me reading one."

"And you're a good sister and you'd never go reading her mind if it would upset her so badly," says Ethan.

"Did I not just say, 'skip it'?" says Trouble. "Is that not what I just said?"

"Yeah."

"You did say that. Now I want to know why it is to be skipped. No going up a level of meta, either, huh?"

Bella blinks.