I leaned back and sighed. One more thing that was odd. Nothing exciting ever happened in our neighborhood, save for the time when Ginny Thomas’s three-year old accidentally bit into a lightbulb last year and she had to call an ambulance. He wound up being fine, but the neighbors talked so dramatically you would have thought something actually serious had happened, like garbage day being moved.

I turned back to my laptop and rested my hands on the keyboard. But before I could type anything, Jack appeared.

“Mom, when can we go to Disney World?”

I heard the background noise of a commercial for the Magic Kingdom and sighed.

“Hmmm, not sure,” I said. “Not sure” was always my answer for “nope.” Never. Walking around a theme park when it was ninety-five degrees while spending approximately one million dollars was not high on my priority list. Christ, we could go to Hawaii for a month for the amount that I heard most families spent.

“Can I have a snack?” Jack said. “And I spilled my water.”

I rubbed my forehead and gave my laptop a long look before I stood up, back into Mom Mode.

—

After dinner, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket. I’d texted Liz two hours before, asking if we could meet up. I wanted to talk to her in person about whatever it was that she was going through. No text back.

Since I hadn’t heard from her, I texted Melissa and Jess.

Have you guys heard from Liz? I want to check in with her.

Nope was Jess’s response.

I had meetings all day and never looked at my phone, Melissa said.

Then, as if in collusion, they both responded:

Go over there. See if she’s on acid.

Why don’t you check in on her? I have to finish this performance review.

My marching orders given, I glanced again at Liz’s house. The plume of smoke had stopped, and the house was still. A wave of anxiety built in my chest and spread across my body as I thought about what to say to my friend. Her behavior at the block party and at her house the day before was so out of character that I didn’t know what to expect. I wanted to ask Jess and Melissa to come with me for solidarity, but I knew it was probably best if I went alone. Melissa wouldn’t have patience if Liz was still acting bizarre, and Jess would brush it off and deflect. So that left me.