“I haven’t left the house in a couple of days,” I told her. “My imagination might be working overtime.”

The dishwasher, which had been running this whole time, switched cycles at that moment and emitted a grinding sort of whine. It was an old Sunbeam, and had been doing this off and on for the past couple of weeks. I’d been ignoring it, hoping it was one of those minor mechanical issues that would work itself out. I knew I should probably replace it for the incoming homeowners, but I also knew I probably wouldn’t, as long as the dishes kept turning out ok.

“Anyway,” I said, moving away from the grinding dishwasher. “I’ve started the cleaning.”

“Oh, Karen,” said Jessica, accepting the change of subject. “You should hire someone to do that. With everything else you have going on right now.”

“No, it’s good. I mean, I will if it gets too much. But right now, it’s therapeutic.”

“You didn’t tell me how Kelli was,” said Jessica after a moment.

“Yes I did.”

“You said she’s great.”

“She is! She’s in her spot by the window, rocking up a happy storm as we speak. Jessica says hi, Kelli!” I called into the living room.

“Jenny Mad-tall,” came the reply. “Heh-heh-heh.”

“Kelli says hi back,” I told her.

“But how’d she do after all the vomiting? Did you ever figure out what caused it?”

“No. It had to have been food poisoning. Kelli was just more sensitive to something or another — something in the coleslaw maybe — than we were.”

“I don’t get it,” said Jessica.

“The mystery that is Kelli!” I said, picking dried vegetable matter out of the corners of the crisper.

“Maybe you should take her to the doctor,” said Jessica.

I stopped scrubbing for a moment. “Yeah,” I said. “Of course. I mean, she seems fine. But definitely, once things have settled down —”

“You know, house hunting doesn’t need to be the priority right now —”

“Oh, it’s very much the priority,” I told her. “You have no idea how desperate we are to get out of here.”

“I do,” said Jessica. “I’m just saying, you sound a little frazzled.”

I stopped scrubbing altogether. Was I frazzled? I didn’t think I felt frazzled, exactly. Busy, maybe. But mostly I felt focused, and motivated.

“Did you get the key back from that guy yet?”

Jessica now knew Trevor’s name but for some reason she never said it. It was always “that guy” or “the kidnapping guy.” It was as if she could ward him off that way — keep him at a distance.

“Jessica!” I said. “I haven’t even seen him.”

“He’s going to be back,” said Jessica. “Guys like that always come back.”

“Guys like what?” I said.

“Guys that can’t stand for you not to be thinking about them,” said Jessica.

I was applying steel wool to the corner of the crisper and didn’t really think about the thing I said next. “You know, you’re actually reminding me a bit of him right now.”