Jaromir comes back from the gatehouse with the case worker's card in his hand and does not sit down at the table.
He puts the card down in front of you, face up, where you can see the name and the number that has been written and crossed out twice.
"She left it. Said if we needed anything before Friday, ring it."
He looks at the chair he has not taken, then at you.
"I have been in four rooms since I was nine years old. Two of them had locks on my side. One of them had a drain in the floor."
His jaw works once.
"This one has a window that opens. I checked it twice."
He is standing the way he stood in the living room, with his weight forward, and you realise he is waiting to be told what happens next, and that he has no idea how to ask for that.
"Tell me one rule,"
he says at last.
"One. Not the whole house. One rule and I will keep it, and then in a week you can give me a second one."