Kalina bounced back away from the curtain that had just shocked her, but reached out with her other hand to grab the egg that was hidden behind it. She dropped it into her basket, where it rolled over to one side quietly, lonely. Crisanta had tried to claim that they were too old for this, and Kalina tried to console herself by pretending that she agreed, and that was why she had found so few eggs.

“Hurry up,” her dad teased, “Your sisters are going to find them all.” She rolled her eyes, hoping he would take that as teenage apathy.

It was time to follow Crisanta to the dining room, she decided, looking around the living room one more time, trying to see if there were any other likely hiding places, other than the low, obvious ones that were there for Camelia. Crisanta had too much of a head start for Kalina to really expect to get more than another one or two eggs, unfortunately, and, indeed, Crisanta was glancing around the dining room, in the same way she had just examined the living room.