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say how sorry I was for what happened to your husband and . . .”
    “You’re sorry? You don’t know how sorry you will be. Unless of course, you become
    one of them,”she said.
    “One of them? Who’s them?”
    “You’ll find out,” she replied.
    Kristin watched her pluck a package of frozen mixed vegetables out of the freezer and drop it in her cart.
    “You’ve given birth,” Kristin said. “What did you have?”
    “I had a miscarriage,” Elaine Feinberg said. She turned and smiled coldly. “The baby was born dead,” she added and pushed past her.
    Kristin couldn’t move. She was standing in the same spot when Teddy and Jennifer
    found her. As she told him whom she had met and what was said, the cold air from the refrigerator case chilled her. Jennifer gazed up with a look of dismay.
    “How can a baby be born dead, Daddy?” she asked.
    “You remember, honey. It happens sometimes. It happened to Mommy,” he said quickly, avoiding Kristin’s eyes. They always tried to avoid discussing her miscarriage, which Jennifer was too young at the time to realize.
    “Will Mommy’s new baby be born dead again?” Jennifer asked. Kristin flashed a look of panic at him.
    “No, honey. The baby is fine. We had it checked just recently. Don’t worry.”
    “Didn’t that lady have her baby checked?”
    “Jennifer . . .”
    “Let’s finish up our shopping and get going,” he said, and Kristin nodded.
    “She was so cold, speaking to me like someone in a trance, Teddy, warning me I’d
    become one of them. One of what?”
    “Don’t think about it. The miscarriage must have been caused by the emotional
    aftermath of what happened to her husband,” he said.
    “That poor woman.” Kristin shuddered and embraced herself. “Now I’m very glad they
    cleaned and polished our home so thoroughly,” she said. “It would give me the creeps to be reminded that my new house was once occupied by a suicide victim and by a woman
    who suffered a miscarriage,” she added pointedly.
    “Was there a dead baby in our new house, Mommy?” Jennifer asked.
    “What? Oh no, honey. Damn,” she muttered. “That woman surprised and shocked me. I
    didn’t think. I shouldn’t have said anything in front of Jennifer. Now she’ll have
    nightmares.”
    “Come on, honey,” Teddy said, taking Jennifer’s hand. “Help me get the cereals.”
    Kristin thought for a moment and then hurried after them.
    She wanted to tell Teddy more; she wanted to tell him how the woman, Mrs. Feinberg, had accusation in her eyes when she spoke. But she knew what Teddy would say—she
    was exaggerating, imagining, reading more into someone’s gaze than was actually there.
    Perhaps Teddy was right, she thought. After all, of course it was ridiculous. How could she and Teddy be in any way to blame for her husband’s death and her subsequent
    miscarriage? All they had done was come along and offer to buy her home.
    2
    MARILYN S LATER SAT IN THElight cherry wood rocker and gazed out the living-
    room window. From this corner of the room, she could look down Slater Court to the
    corner of Courtney Street and see the house in which the Feinbergs had lived. She saw the new family move in, their comings and goings, passing like transition scenes in some soap opera. In a real sense, the activities of the residents of Emerald Lakes had become her entertainment and her windows had become her television screens. She couldn’t even say how many hours she spent gazing out of them. Sometimes she felt as if she were in a big bubble smack down in the middle of the development. She ventured out so rarely
    these days, she might as well be confined to a germ-free environment.
    In her right hand she held her glass of water spiked with Absolut vodka. Philip rarely drank so he had no idea how much alcohol they had and how much she drank. Marilyn
    disguised her breath with mints and gum and made sure to wash her glasses thoroughly. It didn’t surprise her that Philip knew so