“Stuart must have sensed my despair from the way I began lightly banging my forehead on the table.”

“We heard her come halfway up the stairs, where she must have seen the bedroom light on. Again, the normal parent reaction would have been to say something like, "You had better come out this moment or I am releasing the tiger!" But Debbie was not a normal parent, so we heard her gigle and creep away, saying, "Shhh! Rachel! Come with Mommy! Stuart is busy!”

“It rang and it rand and it rang. I looked at the screen one last time, then at Stuart, and then I reached my arm back and threw the phone as hard as I could (sadly, not that far), and it vanished into the snow. The eight-year-olds, who were truly fascinated with our every move at this point, chased after it. 'Lost it,' I said. 'Whoops.”

“You want to go back to my house the long way?" he asked."Or the shortcut? You have to be cold-""Long way," I replied. "The long way, for sure.”

“Can I tell you something you really don't want to hear? He's going to break up with you. - Stuart”

“Were you playing with Stuart?" she asked.The question was loaded. I was a filthy, filthy woman, and even the five-year-old knew it.”

“I could envision it all to clearly: Stuart or Debbie finding the dented door off its hinges, lying in the snow. "She came in, ravaged the boy, stole plastic bags, and ripped off the door in her escape," the police would say in the APB. "Probably making her way to bust her parents out of jail.”