“I told her it’s just the house settling,” Sherri said. “But you know kids.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and added, “She thinks the house is haunted. Which obviously it’s not. But we’ve had a lot of changes lately. It’s been”—she raised her eyes to the ceiling, as though selecting the perfect word, but produced only—“hard.”

“I get it,” said Alexa. Alexa knew Katie’s parents were recently divorced. She reminded herself to be extra kind. Alexa refrained from saying that the house probably was haunted, because it was her belief that most of the older homes in Newburyport were. She knew that her own house was, but she thought that the spirits that haunted it were most likely friendly, especially in her bedroom. More than once she had woken in the night to sense a warm, comforting presence surrounding her, almost like somebody had laid a light blanket over her sleeping body. When she turned on the light she saw nothing, and the feeling disappeared. She tried to tell Tyler about this once. He said, “I’ll show you a warm comforting presence in your bed, bae,” and after that she didn’t talk to him about it, or to anyone.

Sherri departed, and Alexa turned her attention to her charge. She was hoping Katie went to bed on the earlier side; Alexa had some research on L.A. apartments to do. There were so many different neighborhoods! Four hundred and seventy-two, she’d learned online. She knew the Valley would be too hot, and downtown L.A. too crowded, but that was as far as she’d gotten in terms of ruling out areas. There was Echo Park and Pacific Palisades and Koreatown; there was San Pedro and Fairfax and Santa Monica and Topanga Canyon. Each of these names tasted exotic on her tongue when she said them aloud in the privacy of her own bedroom. Playa Vista. Sunset Junction. Los Feliz.

Katie was as efficient and self-contained as a Roomba, a nice change from Morgan’s overparented other friends. When Alexa asked her what she’d like for dinner Katie told her she’d made herself some pasta with a little bit of butter and cheese before her mom left, and that she sliced some red peppers to make sure she got her vitamins. Alexa was not sure that Morgan was familiar with how to boil water, never mind slice a pepper. She was impressed.

Katie settled down to watch Cupcake Wars in the living room and invited Alexa to join her. The living room was so small that Alexa had the impression that if she sat down her knees would knock up against the television set—and she had topped off in ninth grade at five feet, five inches.

“I’ll join you a little bit later,” she told Katie. “I just have a couple of things I need to take care of.”