I shook my head. “I have no idea, but it’s really creeping me out. As much as I enjoyed watching her say whatever she said to Heather and the Mom Mafia, there’s something obviously going on with her, and we need to ask her about it. She’s arrogant; she’s bitchy. It’s like she’s completely flipped her personality. Like she . . .” I trailed off.

“Dropped a bunch of acid,” Jess finished as she lay back on her chair.

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, something like that. But, really. Do you think something’s wrong at home? With Tim, maybe?”

“Probably,” Jess said as she closed her eyes. “He’s not exactly Husband of the Year or anything. I mean, the guy ignores Liz and the kids and only talks in weird lawyer corporate speak like ‘touch base’ and ‘accountability.’ And he only cares about money.”

Liz and Tim were high school sweethearts and had been together for nearly twenty years. I imagined he had been softer and kinder at some point, since she’d fallen in love with him. If they had met in adulthood, I couldn’t imagine that they would have chosen each other. While Liz was loving and motherly, Tim seemed to feel the only contribution he needed to provide was on his W-2.

“Well, I’m going to talk to her and see if she’s okay. It’s just too weird, with the clothing and general behavior,” I said. I stopped before I allowed myself to tell Jess about all the other strange things that I had felt over the past week.

I looked up as Emily tenderly patted a younger girl wearing a swim diaper by the water’s edge. She was sensitive, almost empathic. She had cried for what felt like hours the night that we had found the bunnies. The next morning, we’d held a small ceremony for them in the backyard and buried what was left of them in our flower bed. That afternoon, I saw her kneeling in front of the grave, telling them that they were safe now and not to worry. It broke my heart a little.

She had come inside and stood at the kitchen window, her eyes wide.

“Something bad happened to them, Mommy,” she whispered. Her small body seemed to fold into itself, and she looked like a trembling baby bird. Her face was pale, her mouth pinched together in fear.

I knelt and wrapped my arms around her, but she didn’t return the embrace. “It was just another animal, honey. It’s just . . . nature.”

She nudged my hair aside and whispered into my ear. “No. I saw it.”

I leaned back in surprise. “You saw it? When? What happened?”