loud bang and then silence. I sensed rather than saw someone peering at us through the peephole.
After five long, slow seconds, the door cracked open. Through the crevice, we caught a flash of black pants, a white shirt, and a narrowed brown eye beneath a sliver of a denim cap.
“Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying,” came the suspicious voice.
Lucas, who stood more directly in her line of sight, cleared his throat. “Hello? Mrs. Applebaum?”
The door didn’t budge.
“I knew I should have gotten one of those no soliciting signs,” she snapped. “Get off my porch, or I’m calling my neighbor. Who’s a retired police officer, by the way.”
“We’re not here to sell you anything, ma’am. We want to talk with you about Sarah Lusk.”
There was an awkward silence as we all stood there motionless. It was almost as though we were expecting Sarah’s ghost to materialize.
Then again, Sarah’s ghost had been alive from the moment I was created.
“Who are you people?” Mrs. Applebaum finally said. “Is this some kind of cruel prank? Sarah is dead!” The door started to close, but Lucas moved with more speed than I knew he possessed. He managed to stop the slam with the toe of his shoe.
“I’m sorry. We didn’t mean to startle you,” Lucas said. Then he tilted his head at me. “This is my stepsister Mona. She’s Sarah’s cousin. If you open the door, I think you’ll see the resemblance for yourself.”
At first the door didn’t move. Then it squeaked while she inched it open farther, wide enough that she could see my entire face. We could also see her for the first time. Mrs. Applebaum was a petite woman in her early seventies, wearing a pair of stretchy black yoga pants and a white zip sweatshirt. Her denim cap was embellished with sequins, a few pieces of gray-streaked brown hair dangling from beneath it. Laugh lines were etched into the skin near her mouth and eyes.
As she sized me up, I waited like a tightly coiled spring. This would be the first real test of my appearance alterations. If Mrs. Applebaum noticed something that spooked her, our conversation would be dead in the water.
Thankfully, though, she seemed to relax, her posture softening at her shoulders. “There is a similarity, yes.”
The door opened wider. “Sorry about before. If I get only two solicitors a day, it’s a blessing. And sometimes, they don’t like to take no for an answer,” she said. Then she did something surprising. She reached out and took my hand in hers, patting it gently. “I’m so sorry for your loss. Sarah was such a dear, dear girl.”
“Thank you,” I said, shifting my weight from foot to foot, hoping that she would invite us in. “We don’t want to intrude or anything, but do you think we could talk to you for a few minutes?”
A faint smile formed on her lips. “Of course. Come and have a seat on the porch.” She waved us over to the small table. “I’ll go fetch us some iced tea.”
Maybe this old woman knew something useful.
Mrs. Applebaum bustled back outside holding a tray with three large plastic cups. Ice clinked as she set them in front of us. “Sugar?” she said, nodding at two spoons and a glass container. “I don’t have any of that artificial sweetener that’s so popular these days, I’m afraid. That stuff is poison, full of toxins. What’s wrong with plain old sugar? I like to know where my food comes from, thank you very much.”
I took a sip.
Apple cinnamon.
I remembered this flavor.
“Are you trying to bamboozle an old lady?” A Mrs. Applebaum with less gray in her hair peered at me from across this exact same table, fanning a stack of red-and-white playing cards.
I laughed, setting my own cards facedown on the table. Even beneath the shade of the porch, the sun beat down, dampening my bare legs. I took a long chug of the iced tea, the crisp hint of apple sweetened by cinnamon, before pressing the cold glass to my face.
“You like the tea? Sarah drank it when she’d stop by sometimes to play gin.”
I drained half the glass to give myself time to recover, conscious of her gaze. “It’s great.”
“Now, what brings you around these parts?” she said. “Do you live here? No, you couldn’t, or I imagine I would have seen you, hanging around with Sarah,” she said, answering her own question.
“I’m just visiting. I’m interested in a couple of colleges in the area, and