“For Lily, yes. For a while there, we were sure she was going to run away and join the circus to enact revenge. I mean, to be fair, I’ve thrown a lot of changes her way over the last few years.” I paused, cleared my throat, tugged on my hair, a nervous tic. You’re blabbering on. “But it’s not totally new for me, actually. I went to grad school at Gunston University. Lived near campus, like two miles from here?”

“Really?” Kendra’s expression shifted, as if she was processing this new information.

I nodded. “Actually, this whole neighborhood is familiar.” I made a sweeping gesture with my hand, the alcohol carrying me on a light wave. I’d remembered the houses right away. Tucked up around the lake. The mothers, the strollers, the creaky swing sets. The sun glittering on the surface of the lake. “My professor lived around here. He used to have our class over every month or so. Down by the water?”

“Who’s that?” Bettina asked.

“Greg Hendricks?” I wasn’t sure why my voice was suddenly making everything into a question. They don’t need to hear your life story, Theresa.

“The superintendent’s son?” Kendra’s eyebrows had disappeared under her bangs.

Pia chuckled. “Someone has friends in high places.”

I pressed my finger into the ice skull and it cracked, breaking in half.

“Yes, well. Speaking of,” Kendra said. She pulled a folder from her purse. “I wanted to talk about the guest list.”

A guest list? For a block party?

Pia rolled her eyes at me, as if to say, I told you so.

“Doesn’t that take care of itself?” I smiled. “I mean, don’t the neighbors just invite their friends?”

“Oh, Theresa. Don’t you know if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself?” Kendra sighed, looked down again at her papers and clicked her pen. “We like to increase the prestige of the party each year. Up the game, I guess you’d say. One of the reasons we’re excited you’re here is because we wanted to see who you might be able to bring in.”

“You mean, like, friends?” I asked.

“Well, yes and no.” Kendra made notes on her papers, but held them at an angle where I couldn’t see. “Sure, if you have friends in the area with kids. But we are thinking more like...celebrities.”

“Celebrities?”

“Well, local celebrities.”

Alice piped up. “It’s so nice. We have the mayor every year. He brings his grandkids trick-or-treating. We almost got the governor one year, too, but then at the last minute he changed his mind. They are just the sweetest family, too. We’re—Kendra’s thinking of getting a band this year.”