The Hazel Wood

Alice waits for Audrey after school and for a car to come pick them up, but they do not show. A cab driver pulls near and first offers, then advises a ride several times despite Alice’s refusal. When she looks at him, Alice is overcome by the feeling that she knows him; he behaves as if he knows her as well. She runs. Strangely, the doorman is missing from his post in Harold’s apartment building when she arrives. She uses her key and takes the elevator, which deposits her directly into the entryway of the apartment, halfway hoping that “Ella was already packing our stuff” for the next move (52). Instead of finding her mother or Harold, however, Alice is greeted by a terrible smell: “A wet, almost rotten scent, with something wild curling beneath it—something green” (52).

Alice has an eerie feeling that reminds her of a time when a house she and her mother were staying in was burglarized. The burglar had stolen the books and put food from the refrigerator on the shelves in their place, and a fur coat was found on the wall above Alice and Ella’s bed, pinned there with a carving knife.