By now a light had come on in the hallway—she could see it underneath the closed door—and she heard footsteps moving hurriedly toward the room, so she scrambled underneath the bed just as the door opened. From under the bed, she could see two bare feet entering the room. The feet of a man. Her father. He flicked on a light and the room around the bed became much too bright for comfort. Allie pulled herself as deep under the bed as she could get. Although Allie was wildly out of breath, and spiked with adrenaline, she slowed her breathing to make it as quiet as possible, and she watched her father’s feet as he moved around the bed to the window. Allie could feel the boy’s heart beating as far up as her eyeballs now, making her vision blurred and veiny with each beat.

“What was it?” said her mother, who was now standing at the threshold.

“Nothing,” her father said. “The tree knocked down a window screen, that’s all.”

“I told you we should have had it trimmed.” Then she added, “Are you sure that’s all it was?”

“Come look for yourself.”

Her mother crossed to the window. Allie heard the window being pulled closed. “I’m sorry,” her mother said. “After that woman today, I’m a little spooked.”

“There are crazies everywhere. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll see about getting that alarm system.”

Her parents left the room, turning off the lights and closing the door. In a few moments Allie heard the complaint of springs as they climbed back into bed. Allie remained frozen for ten minutes, just in case they decided to come back in. Then finally she came out from under the bed and looked around. With nothing but a distant streetlight shining through the curtains, everything was cast in shades of gray. Even so, Allie recognized exactly what this room was.

This was her bedroom.

Or at least the Memphis version of it. It had been her bed she was hiding under, with her covers spread across it. There was the desk where she had once labored over homework, and on the walls were posters of bands whose music she hadn’t heard for three years. It was like a museum. A shrine to her memory. What on earth had possessed her parents to do this? It would be one thing to keep her room in the old house, but to recreate it here? She didn’t know what to think.