“Eleven, plus Luna,” said Nicole. “Luna and Hazel planned it—one guest for each year for the birthday girl. We’re so pleased that Luna wanted her party to be here. I know we’re right next door to the black hole, but the neighborhood has already begun to change, and I think the aura of the house will change once the new owners get their hands on it.”
“I hope they give it a beautiful facelift,” said Mom.
“Or bring in a wrecking ball,” said Ruby, craning her neck a bit to take another look at the old house beyond the fence.
“Honey, that’s a little extreme,” Mom said.
“But I’ve felt that way myself at times,” Nicole agreed. Even after the Petrovs had been jailed, some of the sisters had wanted to stay at the house, but lawyers for the Petrovs had ordered that the property be sold along with the hotel, which had ceased operation. Laura and Julia had been on television crying in court, lost without their caretakers. Rachel had been whisked away by her wealthy parents, who had negotiated a way to make her testimony by deposition. Later in the trial it came out that Rachel’s family had been paying Leo and Natalie a generous monthly stipend for Rachel’s room and board, as if they had been running a care home.
Sienna Johnson, a runaway from Idaho, had testified against Leo and Natalie but later sobbed at the guilty verdict, telling a TV reporter that she loved Leo and that he was “a good man.” Hearing that Sienna had been Luna’s friend at times, Ruby had felt bad for her, still deluded, still thinking she was in love. Just eighteen, Sienna wasn’t a lot older than Ruby, but she still had a lot of stuff to figure out. She refused to return to her conservative family in Idaho, but she didn’t seem to have any immediate plans beyond waiting for Leo to be released from prison.
It looked like she would be waiting for at least twenty-five years.
The music switched to the “Happy” song, and Hazel led the kids out of the bouncy castle to dance around in a line. So corny, Ruby thought. She had been that age once, though she and her friends had been way too self-conscious for something like that.
The song ended and Luna came bounding across the yard to give the McCullums hugs. One magazine had called her the “miracle girl,” but to Ruby the real miracle was that she was quickly learning to be a normal kid.
“I’ve never had a birthday before!” she exclaimed.
“Well, you’ve had birthdays,” Ruby said, “just not parties.”
“You’re a stickler for accuracy,” Luna said, making Ruby laugh. “Did you see your gift? Where is that box?”
“A gift for us?” Aurora teased. “But it’s not our birthday, silly.”
“It’s just your lucky day,” Luna said, finally spotting a box on the back of the deck. She slid it onto the table and opened the lid. “Kaysandra said you guys might want to read some of these. They’re not as good as Harry Potter, but they’re stories Mama told me, and I wrote them down to practice writing and spelling.”
Ruby and Aurora lifted stapled packets of handwritten work from the box. “Aw, look at these cute little drawings!” Aurora exclaimed. “Here’s a man throwing a football and a cheerleader with pompoms and a sweater with a red R on it. What does the R stand for?”
“Roseville,” Luna said. “That’s where Mama went to school.”
“I didn’t know that.” Aurora turned to Ruby, who shrugged. She had never heard it, either.
“So you and our mom wrote these stories?” Ruby asked, intrigued to find this treasure trove of information. These stories might be her final glimpse into the heart and mind of her birth mother.
“Mama made them up, and I was her scribe. It was part of my homeschooling in the house. My favorite part. A lot of the stories were about my father, Winston.”
Ruby looked up from the story she was skimming. “Wait. That was our birth father’s name, too.”
“I know that now. I mean . . .” Luna hesitated, flustered. “I used to think he was my dad, but now I know that Mama told me stories about your dad and pretended he was mine.”
Ruby nodded, trying to encourage her. Leo had claimed to be Luna’s father, and most people assumed that it was true. But Kaysandra had mentioned that Luna often mentioned a mythical father—a rapping, poetic football player who was uncannily similar to Winston Noland.
“I think Mama told me about your dad because she thought it would hurt me to know Leo was my father. Marigold says he mistreated me and that’s never going to happen again. But if Marigold and Charles can adopt me, I’ll have a new dad soon. It’ll be official.”
“I know. Isn’t it great?” Ruby gave her a friendly nudge. “You and Aurora and I, we’ve got a second shot at being part of a family. Some people barely get one, but we get a second chance. We’re lucky girls.”
* * *
Squinting against the brightness of the candle flames on her cake, Luna let her eyes sweep over the faces gathered around her. She was supposed to make a wish, but how could you know what to wish for in a world where things changed overnight?
Last August, she would have probably wished for a candy bar or permission to visit Hazel. Now those wishes were easily granted, but she would never have Mama again, brushing the tangles out of her hair or tucking her in at night.
Back then she might have wished for a chance to attend a real school, though she couldn’t have realized how tired she would feel from having too many eyes on her all the time, how she would have longed to go in the coatroom and hide behind the backpack suspended from a hook and listen to the teacher’s lessons through the filter of darkness, just for a few minutes.
Wishes and sorrows seemed to be rolled up together, like the beans and chicken and cheese in a super burrito from Marigold’s favorite Mexican place. And now Luna was on the spot to make a single wish until next year. Impossible.
“Make your wish,” Aurora prodded her. “The candles are dripping.”
Sucking in a breath, Luna blew out the candles and cast her wish for love.
Everyone clapped and cheered, and Luna was happy to melt into the group again, one of many children being served purple and brown cake in Hazel’s backyard. She loved having friends and being free to be a kid, but sometimes she got tired of having to listen and be enthusiastic. Friendship could be draining. She pasted on a smile and let her mind wander as her gaze rose beyond the fence at the house that had contained her world for most of her life.
Had she ever really stood at that attic window, feeling safe and bored and trapped, wondering about the other side? The old attic seemed so far from where she was today, surrounded by friends and new family.
I wish for love.
Her wish had been a last-minute thing, but at least it wouldn’t hurt anyone like those wishes that went awry in fairy tales. Now more than ever she worried about bad things happening to herself and to people she loved. Falling from a window. Getting killed in a car crash. Eating the wrong thing and getting worms or cancer or food poisoning. Ick. The more you learned of the world, the more there was to fear.
Still, a person needed to keep on learning.
She had learned that carrot sticks and apple slices were the healthier choices, but French fries always tasted better. That seemed unfair.
She had learned that emotions could be labeled and it was important to care about what other people were feeling in their hearts. Sometimes kids were mean because their hearts were hurting. She wished that Cara Farrel would stop being mean to her just because they were computer partners and Luna was a “computer weenie.”
She had learned that Charles made the best spaghetti and meatballs in the world and Marigold was a terrible cook but a very good listener. Luna could be herself with Marigold. Quiet or loud, shy or curious. Somehow, this woman could make the right amount of space for who she needed to be.
And she had learned that her sisters, Ruby and Aurora, were there for her. Ruby with her smart ideas and quiet strength, Aurora with a gush of surprise and joy and sunshine.
I wish for love.
From
the other side of the table Marigold caught her eye, observing, smiling, drinking in Luna’s mood like a mama bird tending a nest.
Luna pressed a hand to her mouth as a random giggle slipped out. Just like that. It was crazy, but her wish had already come true.
Please turn the page for a very special
Q & A with Rosalind Noonan!
What inspired you to write this novel?
The initial spark came from a 2016 article in The New Yorker called “Thirty Years in Captivity: One woman’s escape from a London cult” in which Simon Parkin tells the story of Katy, a young woman born into a South London cult and imprisoned in the compound until she managed to escape at the age of thirty. Katy’s plight in captivity was worse than the one I crafted for Luna, as Katy was regularly beaten and emotionally abused. Katy’s birth father and cult leader, “Bala,” denied her contact as a baby, and Katy grew up without nurturing. The women in the household helped educate her, but the environment was so riddled with strife that Katy used to escape to the bathroom, grateful for a toilet that flushed upon command—one of the few reliable things in her life. Ultimately Katy manipulated other women in the house to finally help her escape at age thirty. Her new life had to include real-world lessons like learning how to cross the street, how to make a purchase in a store, and how to respond to social cues.
Katy’s story made me realize how the dynamics of a cult could render a person helpless. In The Sisters, the captive Luna manages to escape at a younger age, but that is only because Luna has allies in the story—her mother, Glory, and eventually Ruby. Of course, once I get my hands on story material I push and pull it in different directions, crafting it into something far different from the source of inspiration. The New Yorker story turned out to be that little glimmering gem that winked at the possibilities: What if this happened? And then . . .
Are these characters based on real people?
The characters in The Sisters are 100 percent fiction, though some of their struggles and sweet moments have been based on my life and my family’s and friends’ experiences. The idea for a mom like Glory to leave her children at a fire station came to me when a family member who went into early labor saw signs at the hospital maternity ward proclaiming it a safe haven. It was incredibly upsetting for my cousin, worried about losing her baby after infertility issues, to imagine a mother dropping off her healthy newborn a few feet away. That experience led me to contrast Glory’s desperation to give her girls a good life and start over herself with Tamarind and Pete’s struggles to have a baby and start their family.
When I was imagining how the cult house might fit in a neighborhood, I recalled the transformation of a house behind us a few years ago when the owners got a divorce and the woman, who took possession of the home, turned it into a boardinghouse. That brought a lot of cars and one quite unsavory character to our otherwise friendly suburban neighborhood. The figure of a man with the sound of a clicking camera appeared in the house window when my daughter and her friends were in our backyard. A man was overheard arguing that he knew how to get revenge on someone. The same man was seen lingering on his bicycle at the school playground, talking to kids. None of these activities was illegal, but we’re talking crazy creepy. It doesn’t take much to menace a neighborhood.
Did you have a favorite character as you were writing the novel?
When writing any scene, I worked hard to get under that character’s skin. Ruby brought me back to that pretend confidence of a sixteen-year-old girl who worries about the future. Glory required persistence through the exhaustion of being a young, single mom. I had to do some research to pinpoint the behavior of Ruby at age four and Luna at ten. The blatant, unfiltered voice of Aurora was a lot of fun for me, as was the defiant Sienna. Why is it so easy for me to write for a whiner? Hmm.
Do you worry about readers believing in your characters?
That’s always a concern, as a character is the vehicle that takes you through a story. Whenever possible I draw from real people, biographies, and experiences. Sometimes it seems like we are living in a world where truth has become stranger than fiction. As I was writing this novel the news broke of a seventeen-year-old girl who escaped from the family home and called for help to rescue her siblings from captivity. The thirteen children of the Turpin family were allegedly being starved and tortured by their parents in their California home. Hard to imagine, but having considered Luna’s circumstances, I could relate to the thrill of these children at learning how to use a toothbrush and having a chance to choose their own reading material. And their mixed feelings toward the parents who alternately fed and tortured them show how reliant we are on each other.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE SISTERS
Rosalind Noonan
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance
your group’s reading of Rosalind Noonan’s
The Sisters!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Early in the novel, Glory Noland makes a difficult choice giving up her children in the belief that they would have a better life being raised by adoptive parents. Do you think a child’s birth parents are inherently more fitting caretakers than a stranger, or are there cases when adoptive parents are the best choice for the emotional security and well-being of a child?
2. Although Glory doesn’t dwell on her mother’s prejudices, Katherine Halpern is angered by her daughter’s involvement with a black man from the time Glory starts dating Winston in high school. What external factors in Katherine Halpern’s life might have played a role in her rejection of Glory and her children?
3. In what ways is the title The Sisters threaded through the story?
4. What qualities attract women like the sisters to Leo Petrov? How does Leo benefit through the nonsexual relationships he has with these broken women?
5. What is Leo’s sister, Natalie, gaining by taking in women and putting them to work?
6. Is there a certain quality or flaw in a person that would make her more likely to join a group like the sisters? What do Laura, Rachel, Kimani, Georgina, Sienna, and Julia have in their pasts that make them vulnerable to controlling people like Leo and Natalie?
7. Crockett Johnson’s children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon is mentioned throughout the novel. Discuss how Harold’s ability to use a crayon to draw his way out of a fix might have played in Ruby’s fantasies. How does this imaginative skill help Luna?
8. Do you think Leo is morally and legally responsible for Glory’s ultimate fate?
9. Throughout the novel, women reveal different methods of mothering. Glory wants the best for her children at any cost. Rima is quick to give advice and checks the barometer of the lives around her through tea reading. Tamarind works to keep channels of communication open, but gives her daughters space. Nicole is protective of her daughter and tries to protect the girl next door when there are hints of abuse. What quality do these women have in common? Which woman would you choose as a mother?
10. Ruby’s friends Delilah and Maxi are quick to tell her what to do. Do you think their advice was wise or foolish? Do you think teens are more likely to take advice from their friends or parents?
11. Why is Luna so forgiving and tolerant of Sienna in her attempt to become friends later in the novel?
12. If you were choosing a cast for the novel, what actors would you pick to play Glory, Ruby, and Tamarind?
The Sisters Page 33