“It was on the other side of the road. I couldn’t make out its face, it was blurred and sort of indistinct. Its body was more a shadow than physical.” I’m aware, as I say this, how ridiculous it must sound to her. But I know what I saw. “It was just standing there, facing me. Even though I couldn’t see its eyes, I knew it was looking at me. Then a bus shot past and it was gone. It vanished.”

Dr. Augur adjusts her glasses. “I see.”

“You always say that. But you don’t see. You don’t believe me.”

She looks at me squarely. “I believe you’re very clever, Ana. Few of my young patients would use a word as particular as ‘benevolent.’ I also believe in the mind’s extraordinary power. That, if you want something to be real, then—”

“Look, why do we even have to do this?”

“We don’t,” she says, raising her shaped eyebrows, scribbling something down on the notepad on her desk. “You’re welcome to leave now and we’ll tell your parents to fetch you and inform the school you’re not inclined to return.”

“That’s a joke….What are you writing?”

“My notes, Ana.”

“You’re telling them I’m not normal, right?”

Dr. Augur looks up from the tight scrawl on her notepad (spidery handwriting that’s impossible to read upside down). “Define normal,” she says.

“You only say that because you’re a shrink.”

“Psychologist.”

“Same difference.”

An uncomfortable quietness settles on the room. Dr. Augur spins her pen on the desk, between thumb and forefinger. It bobbles like the dial of a compass.

“I’m lost,” I say finally. “That’s what you’re writing down.”

“Is that what you think?”

I clench my hands between my knees. Say nothing.

“All right,” she says, putting the pen aside. “Let’s come back to the figures later. First, I want you to tell me what happened with Erika and Bea. And don’t leave anything out. Be specific. It’s important we acknowledge everything. OK?”

I sigh and slouch back into my chair, a kind of scooped Scandinavian minimalist thing—comfortable enough to relax in, but not enough to let you fall asleep.

I stare at the wall clock over the door, willing the hands to accelerate.

Dr. Augur watches me. “Ana,” she says. “What exactly happened?”

—

Erika surges forward. But Bea, light on her feet and laughing, dances out of the way, causing Erika to stumble, swinging her fists, red-faced with rage. Bea, cool as you like, taunts Erika, beckoning her to come after her again. Which I figure is tempting fate, because Erika looks set to murder someone. It then becomes apparent—someone means me. Instead of going after Bea, she turns and she looks in my direction.

And, like a bulldozer, she comes.