"'Where there's a secret,' she says, 'there's shame—and shame is something we can do without.'

'Okay.' I take big breaths so I won't cry.

She puts her arm around me. 'You're just too young to understand.'

As soon as she says this, I realise she is just like everyone else, and wish I was back at home so that all the things I do not understand could be the same as they always are."