I found Mina waiting for me. Deep-purple and red bruises mottled her neck and face. She looked like she’d been in a desperate fight. She tried to play, but she was still in a lot of pain. She never said what happened, so I pestered her. She finally told me that she had been beaten. I asked why her parents would beat her. “Why are your parents so mean to you?” I asked. “They’re not my parents,” she said. “That man’s my husband. That woman is his other wife. They don’t like me to play with you so much since I have a lot of work to do taking care of the little kids.”
