Summary

“Danvers vs. Swampscott” (63) opens in the Kaling household. Andrew Kaling, Julie’s father, was working when the phone rang. He was teaching a course on the Old Testament and was thinking about how to use a Biblical story in a lecture. Heather Houston was on the phone. Mr. Kaling began to run his lecture by her, but Heather told him that she needed to speak to Julie. Julie, who was wearing a white nightgown, took the phone from her father.

Heather told Julie that they had been assigned a mission. Julie thought Heather’s voice sounded strange. She was startled by her own reflection in the kitchen window. She had learned the year before that in many Asian countries, the color white was associated with death, though her religious parents had told her it represented purity. At the moment, she thought she...