“Eleven years difference.” “That’s how, without a direct question, I learned her age. She’s eighteen now?” “Almost nineteen…” And then she whispered two words that made me go on alert: “Would be…” “What do you mean?” I stared at her pale face in astonishment. “There isn’t one—there is.” “What nonsense? This can’t be…” I felt myself choking, remembering what the plot of land across my relative’s house looks like now.