The two children sprawl across the living room floor, and they giggle as if they've never known anything in their lives but joy. They talk about how much they like their new school and basketball with their friends and their Pokemon trading cards. They speak swiftly, as if words have been waiting a long time for someone to let them out. But some thoughts steal the smiles from Allan and Chauntelle Acol.
Some stories silence their laughter.
Allan is 12, his sister Chauntelle barely 10, and yet their past is a haunting presence that won't leave, an unseen companion in their search for a normal life. In their old life, they called Jaylin Kema their mother. Now that they have some distance between the pain and the present, they just call her Jaylin. They never felt close enough to her husband, Peter Kema Sr., to call him their father. Now they worry about him every day because no one has seen him since the summer of 1997.