“There’s none in the house.” I knew that to be true because I checked the kitchen cabinets from time to time. If the Straubs were running low on any staples, I would stop by the market on my way to their house and pick up the items they needed. Amelia was always so grateful for such gestures.

“Skittles.” Piper moved her hips in circles like she had a Hula-Hoop. “Woo-hoo!”

“Skittles!” Natalie chimed in, though she must have known that her parents didn’t have Skittles in the house.

“I haven’t seen any candy here.” I found myself growing irritated by Piper and her demands.

“Ice cream!” Piper high-fived Natalie.

“Girls,” I said. “Finish the movie. It’s almost ten.”

“Ice cream is a necessity,” Piper said. They continued to dance, their arms in the air, their hips bumping each other.

I caved in and gave them coconut gelato, which I’d noticed in the freezer earlier.

After the movie, I followed them upstairs, but Natalie waved me away. “We’re fine.”

“Really?” I asked.

She closed the door behind her.

Later I checked back and the light was off in Natalie’s room. I assumed that they were sleeping.

I straightened up the media room, fluffing the pillows on the sofa where the girls had flattened them down. A charm necklace had fallen in between two pillows. I assumed it was Natalie’s. It appeared that she had made the clay charms herself. One charm resembled Itzhak. One was a little heart with a zigzagged line down the middle, meant to indicate that the heart was broken.

In the kitchen, as I was pouring boiling water over a tea bag, I heard a loud scream from upstairs. I raced up the stairs two at a time and opened the door to Natalie’s room to find Natalie asleep in her bed. The pull-out trundle bed was empty. Piper was standing by the window, screaming. “There was a man! He had a knife! Help me!”

Natalie rustled in her bed, half-asleep. “What happened?”

“Shhh,” I whispered to Piper. “You had a bad dream.”

“What?” Natalie murmured again.

“Shhh.” I patted Natalie’s arm. “Go back to sleep. It’s OK.”

I tried to walk Piper to the door, but she jumped away from me and started screaming again. “No! No!” Even in the dark room, I could see the terror in her face. It wasn’t a show. “I want my mom! You have to take me home!” Piper crouched on the floor, her body in a tight ball.

“Come with me and we’ll call your mom.” I pulled her to her feet and convinced her to follow me down the stairs.