Her eyes met mine. “You would be crazy too, if you saw and heard the things I do.”

I took a long sip of water. Had she just read my thoughts?

No. She had heard herself talking and, knowing that she didn’t make sense, had offered an explanation.

When I glanced up, her eyes were darting around the room, as if insects were popping out of the kitchen walls and she was trying to count them. Her eyes finally lit on me.

“I’m Anna,” I said, just in case.

“Then I suppose you’ve brought luggage.”

“It’s in my car at the top of the driveway,” I replied, although, at the moment, I was thinking about finding a motel.

She stood up. “You may as well fetch it and start unpacking. William knows you’re here.”

Perhaps he can knock twice to say hello, I thought. Aunt Iris was one person I wouldn’t want to join in a séance.

She gave me a sideways look. “Unless you’re afraid of me. You were as a child.”

“I’m not now. I’ll get my things.”

After placing my glass in the sink, I retraced my steps through the dining room to the center hall and front door.

When I had exited and looked back at the house, I realized I could have left directly from the kitchen. It was the first room in the long, low section of the house, and Aunt Iris was watching me from behind its screen door.

I trudged up the gradual incline to my car, feeling her eyes in my back even when the curtain of trees was between us. I drove slowly toward the house, trying to avoid ruts and cats.

Easing past Aunt Iris’s car, Uncle Will’s truck, and the horse trailer, I parked at the far edge of the driveway, snug against some shrubs so I wouldn’t be in my aunt’s way. I pulled out my suitcase and started toward the house.

There was a sudden roar of an engine, and I leaped back, flattening myself against the pickup truck. Aunt Iris’s gold Chevrolet lurched backward, then stopped. I stood on my toes, sandwiched between the sedan and the truck. If I leaned half an inch forward, I’d touch her car. I heard the front wheels wrench around on the shells and dirt, watched its big metal nose turn, and stared after the car as it sped off through the trees. She was a maniac.