It started one night after he and his friends had spent the day downtown at the movie theater, sitting twice through a double feature of two Disney movies: Snowball Express and $1,000,000 Duck. They’d emerged tired and gorged with candy, and they’d gone home to their respective houses. His parents had been waiting for him—they always ate dinner together, that was a family rule—and he’d eaten and then gone upstairs to take a bath.

He’d been successfully avoiding Billingsly and his daughter for several weeks, had only seen the servant at dinner and had not seen Doneen at all, but he was still taking no chances and he made sure that the servant was still in the kitchen and carefully checked the hallways for his daughter before grabbing pajamas from his bedroom and locking himself in the bathroom.

She walked in while he was washing himself in the tub.

“Hey!” he said.

He had locked the door, he was sure of it, and the fact that the girl had still been able to get in frightened him.

She slipped off her dirty nightgown, got into the water.

He jumped up, splashing water on the floor, frantically calling for his mom, his dad, as he grabbed the towel and scrambled away from the tub, trying not to slip on the tile.

Doneen giggled at him.

“Get out of here!” he screamed at her.

“You don’t really want me to leave.” Still giggling, she pointed at his penis, and he quickly covered it with the towel, embarrassed. He couldn’t help it; he had an erection. It was exciting to see a naked girl, but it was even more frightening, and he backed against the door, reaching for the knob and trying to turn it.

It was locked.

He didn’t want to turn his back on Doneen, was not sure what she could or would do, but he had no choice and he turned, unlocking the door.

“Your mother can’t live,” the girl said behind him.

He whirled around. “What?”

“She’s going to have to die.”