“You know where the thermostats are and you know how to use them and I know for a fact no one has ever mentioned heating bills. The rest is up to you.” Jane adjusted a pillow behind her back to make herself more comfortable for what was coming, and found it was pushing her off the cushion. She reached behind her and tossed it to the far end of the sofa. Sarah watched, stone-faced. “Listen, Sarah,” she said. “I think you know why I’m here.”

“Not really. Unless I forgot to pay the rent this month.”

All $100 of it, always paid in fives and tens to make it look like they were gouging her. Don’t Engage. “I just brought Gerald home, safe and sound. There was a traffic jam getting into Cambridge. When I realized how bad it was and how late I was going to be, I called my brother and had him rush down to the school from his office and wait with Gerald. He wasn’t alone for more than a few minutes. Ten at the most.”

Sarah stared at Jane for a very long time, then said, “I’m glad to hear it.” She put her feet up on a crocheted stool, another piece of furniture that belonged to her. Perhaps she spent her days trying to figure out how best to avoid touching anything that Jane had come in contact with. She folded her hands on her lap, and in a flash of panic, Jane saw a busty version of her husband and her shrink sitting opposite her. “All I know,” Sarah went on, “is that when he called here, he was so terrified, I thought something terrible had happened to him. I thought he was hurt or lost. I tried to calm him down, but I didn’t know what to tell the poor thing.”

“You may not have known what to tell him, but apparently what you did tell him was that I’d forgotten about him. You tried to ‘calm him down’ by telling him that I’d abandoned him like some abusive mother who leaves her kids stranded in a shopping mall.”

Sarah said nothing to this, merely stared at Jane with self-righteous contempt. She pursed her mouth and made a soft, sucking sound.

“There was a change in our usual schedule,” Jane said, “and, I admit, I forgot where I was supposed to be and when. And then, on my way to pick him up, I was stuck in a traffic jam. That is what happened.”

“Oh, yes, Jane, I’m sure it is. I am sure that’s exactly what happened.”