Book Three: Double Feature — 4.

On a stormy Florida afternoon, child Donna plays sprinkler games with her friend Cady while their caretaker, Leticia, watches from the porch. Donna scrapes her knee on the Slip ’N Slide-like mat and is led to the steps to be cleaned up, while her brother Van shouts from inside about his TV show.

A dusty van idles beyond the low wall along the street. The driver calls to Cady, claiming to work with her father and saying Cady’s dog, Maisy, has been injured and taken to the emergency vet. Upset, Cady asks Donna to come. The driver agrees, urging haste.

Donna, queasy from imagining a gruesome injury and stinging from her scraped knee, decides to wait for Leticia. Cady, panicked, runs barefoot to the van and gets in. The van jerks away; there is a thud inside as it departs.

Donna sits, conflicted—sick about Maisy, guilty for not going, and relieved she didn’t. Leticia returns with first aid supplies, and Donna repeats the story about the dog. The scene slips into Donna’s imagined alternate timeline where Leticia calls to confirm and the police intercept the van—but that rescue never happens.

In reality, no one realizes Cady is missing until evening, when her mother calls about a sleepover. Cady Lewis is never seen alive again, fixing a defining trauma and regret in Donna’s past.