I’ve woken up several times lately, sure that I wasn’t in the bedroom alone. Once when I was sure I wasn’t in the bed alone.
“The custody case is only part of it,” she said. “I’m scared just to be here, on the TR. It started early this summer, long after I knew Devore meant to get Ki away from me if he could. And it’s getting worse. In a way it’s like watching thunderheads gather over New Hampshire and then come piling across the lake. I can’t put it any better than that, except . . .” She shifted, crossing her legs and then bending forward to pull the skirt of her dress against the line of her shin, as if she were cold. “Except that I’ve woken up several times lately, sure that I wasn’t in the bedroom alone. Once when I was sure I wasn’t in the bed alone. Sometimes it’s just a feeling—like a headache, only in your nerves—and sometimes I think I can hear whispering, or crying. I made a cake one night—about two weeks ago, this was—and forgot to put the flour away. The next morning the cannister was overturned, and the flour was spilled on the counter. Someone had written ‘hello’ in it. I thought at first it was Ki, but she said she didn’t do it. Besides, it wasn’t her printing, hers is all straggly. I don’t know if she could even write hello. Hi, maybe, but . . . Mike, you don’t think he could be sending someone around to try and freak me out, do you? I mean that’s just stupid, right?”
