I dug my nails into my palm. I shouldn’t have let my guard down like that. I suddenly felt stripped by her gaze. This is why I need to trust you with this, I said.

I don’t want to be trusted with this! I don’t want to have any part of this, and you shouldn’t either. This isn’t cool, all right? And I don’t want you fucking up your life with this. And my life. Have you even thought about—? Kyle is a friend of mine, like a friend of all my friends.

I know, it’s complicated.

No, it’s not, she said, eyes wide, it’s actually totally simple. Stop. Stop seeing Kyle or anyone else who thinks they can hear your fucking hum.

In that moment, for the first time in my life, I felt afraid of Ashley. I felt an almost dizzying loss of status. When had that shift occurred? I suppose it was just another thing the hum had stripped me of. Or maybe it had been a more gradual attrition over the years, perhaps ever since she started high school when I began to feel a certain slackening of our psychic bond, but I had always felt that was natural, even healthy. It had never alarmed me before. But now, suddenly, this distance felt dangerous. A chasm to fall into.

I think it would be a good idea if you didn’t mention this to your father, I said.

She took a sip of water. And what makes you think you can ask me that?

I’m just telling you—

I know what you’re telling me, and here’s what I’m telling you—stop. Her eyes bored into me as she picked up her water glass. Just—stop, she said. And we can forget about everything. The choice is yours, Mom.

And with that, she walked out of the dining room, and up the stairs. I stood there in the half-light, bracing myself against the table, until I heard the door to her bedroom bang shut, like a gun firing a blank.

6