1.

Our neighbor Paulette James knelt in front of my mother, sobbing herself hoarse.

She said she'd fought with her husband and been thrown out, that she had nowhere to go, and she begged us to take her in.

In my last life, we were soft. We agreed without a second thought.

The moment she had our keys, she never left. She stayed over a year.

Then she said the place would make a good wedding home for her son, and told the two of us to move out and rent somewhere else.

"It's just the two of you anyway. What difference does it make where you live? We've been friends all these years. When you help someone, you help all the way."

My mother's blood pressure shot up to 180. She grabbed Paulette's things and started throwing them out the door.

That night, Paulette carried a jug of oil into the kitchen.

My mother was burned alive. I barely got out, but the smoke choked me into a vegetative state.

And Paulette played the kind neighbor, "caring for" my grandmother day after day, until she'd tricked the old woman into signing the house over to her.

The day the deed transferred, she came to the hospital to see me.

"I'm doing really well now, so I can't have you waking up and identifying me. You'd ruin everything for me!"

Then she slipped past the cameras and pinched off my oxygen line.

Reborn, she was on her knees again. "Susan, I really have nowhere to go. That animal threw all my clothes out onto the street!"

I pulled my mother back three steps and looked down at her, cold.

"Aunt Paulette, go find whoever threw you out. You don't need to kneel to file a police report."

...

Paulette stayed where she was, tears still streaking her face, her mouth working without a sound.

She'd probably assumed I'd be as easy to handle as my mother.

Three seconds later she wailed even louder, her face smeared with tears and snot. "Susan, I'm too old for this. I have my pride! You don't air your dirty laundry in public!"

"You want me to go to the police? How am I supposed to face anyone after that?"

The door wasn't shut all the way, and inside, her husband heard the noise and came charging out. He snatched the rolling pin off the kitchen counter and hurled it at the doorway. "You still think you haven't shamed me enough? Get the hell out of here!"

The rolling pin grazed the door frame and flew past.

Norma Finch was coming down the stairs right then and flinched back in fright. Carter Chavez from next door threw his arms around the man's waist, and it took four or five people to wrestle him back inside.

Once Norma had her footing, she turned and looked at me with pure contempt. "Phyllis Fox, this is wrong of you. Look how pitiful your Aunt Paulette is. She just needs to stay a few days. It's one extra pair of chopsticks. You won't even do that?"

Carter, still pinning Paulette's husband down, shouted over at me. "A young girl with a heart this hard. What has your mother been teaching you all these years?"

"Everyone falls on hard times. What's wrong with lending a hand?"

My mother stood off to the side, her face going red, then white.

She crouched to help Paulette up, and I stepped over in one stride and put myself between them.

I looked down at Paulette crying on the floor. "Aunt Paulette, you heard them. Everyone upstairs and down wants to help you. Go beg them. Surely one of them can squeeze you in."

Norma's face changed in an instant, and she turned and headed back up. "I live with my boyfriend. It's not convenient."

Her heels clicked away fast, like she was fleeing.

Paulette's crying eased a little, and she tried another angle. "Phyllis, you don't have to let me stay. Just lend me a few hundred and I'll get a hotel."

I drew my mother back a step through the doorway, my hand on the door handle. "Aunt Paulette, the emergency line will pick up just fine."

Then I shut the door with a bang.

After the door closed, my mother stayed in the entryway, not moving. She rubbed her hands together and paced back and forth. "Phyllis, what if... what if I just let her stay one night?"

I didn't answer. I dug a roll of tape out of the shoe cabinet and sealed the peephole shut from the inside.

Out of sight, out of mind.

My mother stared, stunned.

I dragged the suitcase down off the top of the closet. "Mom, I've got a work trip for a few days. Come with me."

She opened her mouth, then let out a sigh and started packing too.

She was always like this. She didn't understand, but whatever I said, she did.

We left that same afternoon. When I locked the door, I gave the bolt an extra turn.

The plane landed and I switched on my phone. The screen hadn't even fully lit before it started buzzing like mad. A dozen missed calls, all from the same number.

I called back, and the property manager's voice blasted out of the earpiece. "Miss Fox! Your place is on fire! Where are you? Get back here now!"

My mother's legs gave out and she went straight down onto the floor tiles of the terminal.

Her heart was bad. When I crouched to steady her, her hands were ice-cold.

"Mom, don't be scared, there's nothing valuable in there." I didn't dare mention Paulette. I walked her toward the exit while rebooking our flight.

2.

Three in the morning, and we flew back.

Gerard Lawrence, the property manager, was still waiting at the foot of our building with a handful of neighbors. The second we climbed out of the taxi, they all closed in on us.

The moment Paulette saw my mother, she jerked backward and let out a scream.

It was the kind of scream you'd give if you'd seen a ghost.

The whole crowd froze and turned to stare at her.

Paulette went rigid. Two or three blank seconds passed before she caught herself, and she forced out a smile uglier than crying. "Susan, how are you back? I thought you were…"

She let out two dry little laughs.

I looked straight at that guilty face of hers and said nothing.

The manager shoved a folder right at us.

"Phyllis Fox, right? There was a gas leak in your unit that started a fire. Lucky Aunt Paulette caught it in time and called it in, or the whole building would've gone up with you."

"You'd better thank Aunt Paulette right now, and pay for the damages to the three units downstairs. Their walls are all smoke-blackened."

My mother heard that and panicked.

"That can't be right, Manager Lawrence. Before we left I checked it over several times, everything was shut off properly."

I clamped a hand on my mother's shoulder and pulled her back behind me.

"Manager Lawrence, what caused the fire? Has the fire department's investigation report come out?"

Gerard blinked. "Not yet."

"The fire department hasn't issued a report, the police haven't ruled on anything," I cut in.

"And you, a property manager, are standing here making the call for the police? Who gave you the authority to rule on this incident? Who made you qualified to demand I pay up and say thank you?"

His lips trembled under the hit. He jabbed a finger at my nose. "Twisting the facts! People like you are a menace to this whole complex! Today it's your place that burns, tomorrow it could be someone else's!"

The second that landed, a few of the neighbors who'd taken damage couldn't hold back.

The woman on the third floor, the one whose balcony railing had been scorched, spoke first. "Exactly! Our balcony railing was brand new, over three thousand dollars!"

The old lady on the fourth floor crossed her arms. "Scared awake in the middle of the night, my heart condition acted up. Who's paying for the emotional distress?"

Everyone talking over each other, working themselves up more with every word.

Before I could get a word in, an old, frail voice suddenly came from the edge of the crowd.

"Phyllis! Susan! Are you two all right?"

My grandmother pushed through, leaning on her cane. She had on her thermal underwear with a padded jacket thrown on any which way over it, the look of someone woken in the dead of night and rushing over.

The moment Paulette spotted the old woman, her face lit up.

She crossed the distance in two quick steps and slipped her arm through Grandma Joanna's, her voice soft and full of concern. "Joanna, what are you doing out here? The night air's cold, and your health isn't good. Go back and rest. I've got things covered here."

Grandma Joanna clutched her hand, gazing at her with gratitude. "Paulette, we owe you so much! If it weren't for you, who knows what state Susan's place would be in!"

Paulette patted the back of the old woman's hand. "Joanna, don't say that. You've always been so good to me, always sending things over. I've thought of you as my own mother for a long time now."

As she spoke, her eyes reddened at the rims.

Grandma Joanna was near tears, gripping Paulette's hand and refusing to let go.

Paulette saw the moment was ripe and put on an air of noble understanding. "Joanna, let's settle today's business like this. Susan and her family don't have it easy either."

"I'm willing to help cover part of their losses. I know money's tight for you two, and Phyllis just started working, she's not earning much yet. Whatever I can take off your shoulders, I will."

Grandma Joanna nodded and nodded, deeply moved. "Paulette, you have such a good heart!"

Then Paulette shifted her tone. "It's just, Joanna, you know how it is. I'm in the middle of divorcing that animal, and I've got nowhere to go."

She paused, watching the old woman carefully.

"Joanna, since you've been so good to me, would it be all right to add my name to the deed? Think of it as me helping Phyllis and her mother with the compensation, fair and square. I promise, I'll look after you in your old age!"

Grandma Joanna's mind had gone muddled with age.

After the years Paulette had spent sweet-talking her, she believed whatever Paulette said.

"Yes, yes, yes, add it!" She patted Paulette's hand. "You're even more devoted than Phyllis. If you're living in that house, I can rest easy!"

Something in my scalp went hot.

"Paulette!" I lunged forward. "Don't you dare take advantage while everyone's down! The gas valve was shut off tight when my mother and I left. You know exactly what happened with that fire, don't you?"

"You came to make a scene at our door in the daytime, and that night our place goes up in flames. Care to explain that?"

I hadn't finished when Grandma Joanna's cane swung around and cracked hard against my arm.

"Shut your mouth!" She was shaking with rage. "Phyllis, when did you become so unreasonable?"

My arm burned where she'd hit me.

Behind the old woman, Paulette's mouth twitched up at the corner, quickly pressed back down.

She steadied a hand on Grandma Joanna's shoulder and put on a pained look. "Joanna, don't hit the girl. Phyllis is probably just frantic. I don't blame her."

"Phyllis, let your aunt tell you something straight from the heart. It's burned this badly. Even if the fire department comes, they won't find anything."

"Take one piece of advice from me and settle this privately. For the sake of being neighbors, people will still cut you some slack. But if you insist on blowing this up, there'll be no way to clean it up after."

I pulled her hand off and stared straight into her eyes.

"Whether they can find anything or not isn't for you to decide."

For an instant, the smile on Paulette's face froze.

"Paulette, this isn't about you feeling sorry for us." I said it one word at a time. "You're afraid the police will come and find out you're the one who set that fire."