Police sirens fill the cold evening air with their spine-tingling wail. Men and women clad in blue mill about the prim front lawn framed by a white picket fence. As heavy footsteps mingle with a child’s cries, a body bag emerges from the picturesque little cottage . . .
Six hours earlier
Beep! Kai’s ancient car honks noisily as she checks that it is locked. After pulling three times on the handle, she finally moves up the gravel driveway toward the house.
It appears to be an adorable little thing, almost like a scene from a movie. The picket fence and square green lawn invite Kai into their midst. She smiles, admiring the colorful array of flowers in the garden; it has to be Mr. Marshall’s handiwork, seeing as he works at a garden center. Kai knocks on the sky blue door three times, then stands back in wait. Soon enough, a familiar bearded face appears in the doorway. Behind Mr. Marshall’s unshaven but kind countenance, Mrs. Marshall’s face swims in shadows.
“Kai!” Mr. Marshall exclaims. “Thank you so much for babysitting. Come in, come in, please.” Mr. Marshall opens the door all the way, beckoning the young lady inside.
“Yes, thank you Kai.” Mrs. Marshall echoes in a hushed tone. Kai enters and smiles graciously, steering clear of the petite but intimidating woman.
“I’m happy to help. Where is your daughter?”
“Oh she’s in her playroom.” Mr. Marshall replies with a wave of his hand. “Here, let’s give you a tour and a rundown before you meet her.”
As the couple guides Kai through the small house, they explain all their expectations.
“We’ll be home around 10:00, so you’ll have about two hours alone after she’s asleep.”
“She’s already had lunch so you’ll just have to feed her some snacks and dinner around 6:00.”
“Also, don’t forget to feed the cat. Ally usually does it, but just be sure to remind her.”
“She’s not allergic to anything—well, I mean Ally isn’t but I guess the cat isn’t either—so don’t worry about that.”
“Oh, Ally’s had a bit of cold lately so we’d prefer it if you keep her inside.”
“Most of her toys are in the playroom, but here’s all the art supplies; she’s a very good artist.”
“Oh yes, wait until you see those drawings she did.”
“They’re hung up on the fridge so you can glance over them at snack time.”
Mr. Marshall’s cheerful voice bounces back and forth with Mrs. Marshall’s solemn one to sing the strangest duet Kai has ever heard. Nevertheless, she listens carefully as the couple describes their rules and recommendations. After several minutes of strolling around the quaint house, the tour arrives at its final destination: the playroom.
Inside, the pastel yellow walls display a variety of mini portraits, including a rainbow with its pot of gold, an enormous cloud, and a palm tree holding several coconuts. Kai’s eyes flit about the room, admiring the art and wincing at the messy shelves. Her eyes eventually land on the drawing table in the center of the room, where Mr. Marshall crouches close to the floor, speaking softly to the girl of the hour.
Despite the cringeworthy messiness of her playroom, Kai immediately falls in love with Ally. Her frizzy blonde hair and big blue eyes yield an intelligence deeper than most adults display. Kai grins as she watches Ally, whose eyes remain attached to the coloring page in front of her.
“Ally, why don’t you pause your coloring for a second and say hello to our friend Kai?” Mr. Marshall’s coaxing voice entices the young girl to look up for the first time since the party entered the room.
Kai makes eye contact with the girl and smiles broadly, raising her hand in a little wave.
Ally pauses, inspecting every detail of the newcomer with the blatantly judgemental eyes only found on a child and an extremely old woman. Then the little girl sets down her magenta crayon and speaks.
“What kind of a name is Kai?”
“Ally, don’t be rude.” Mrs. Marshall chastises. However, Kai understands that no rudeness lies behind the child’s question. The babysitter kneels down, moving a little closer to the drawing table so she can converse with Ally.
“Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude.” Ally adds under the heat of her mother’s glare.
“It’s okay, Ally. I don’t mind.” Kai flashes the girl another small smile before continuing. “My name has been passed on to women in my family and my tribe for as long as we can remember. It means ‘willow tree.’” Seeing confusion flashing across Ally’s face, Kai adds, “Those are the pretty trees with long green leaves that hang down.”
“Oh, yeah!” Ally exclaims. “The trees with the green braids!”
“Yes, exactly!” Kai replies with a laugh.
“Okay, I get it now. Kai is a cool name. You can stay.”
Mr. Marshall, Mrs. Marshall, and Kai all laugh—much to Ally’s confusion—at the child’s verdict. Kai stands up and turns to the couple, who both appear satisfied with the interaction.
“I think we’ll be just fine, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall.”
“I agree.” Mrs. Marshall replies.
After saying goodbye to their daughter, the couple leads Kai toward the front door.
“Thank you again for coming over so last minute, Kai. We really appreciate it.” Mr. Marshall grins as he grabs his jacket from the coat hanger and throws it over his arm.
“Call us if you need anything at all.”
“We’ll see you in about six hours.”
“Try to remember about the cat.”
“And if Ally misbehaves just tell her she’ll lose bedtime story privileges.”
“She reads at a pretty high level, just so you know.”
“Okay, we’re leaving now, thanks again Kai!”
The strange duo hurries out the door and down the driveway. They pass Kai’s rusty old truck and wave as they hop into their Tesla. Kai chuckles slightly; the expensive car doesn’t exactly fit the cottage’s simplistic atmosphere. Nevertheless, Kai waves back, closes and locks the door, and returns to the playroom where her young charge awaits.
. . .
“So you just spread the jelly across the bread nice and even,” Kai explains, demonstrating with the knife in her hands. “Then you put the two slices together and you have your sandwich.”
“Oh, that’s much easier than I expected.” Ally says cheerfully
“That’s usually what happens when you try new things.”
Ally takes the plate in front of her—complete with pretzels, carrots, and, of course, her sandwich—and quickly begins her feast. As Ally eats, Kai feeds the cat and washes up the few dishes perched next to the sink. When the little girl finishes devouring her dinner, the pair starts the trek back to the playroom. When they pass the art cabinet, however, Kai stops.
“Is there anything in the art cabinet that we could play with?” the babysitter asks, opening the large oak doors.
“No, most of my coloring supplies are in my playroom.”
“What if we make some bracelets? Or make a card for your parents? Or make something out of Play-Doh?”
Ally shakes her head furiously until she hears the word “Play-Doh.” Intrigue seeps across her face as she follows Kai’s gaze to the ten containers of Play Doh on the top shelf. After a moment, Ally gives in.
“Okay, Play-Doh sounds fun.”
Kai collects the containers and carries them down the hall to the playroom. She sets the Play-Doh onto the table, organizing it by color.
“Which color do you want to use first?” Kai asks as Ally analyzes all her Play-Doh options.
“How about . . . all of them!” Ally hurriedly rips the caps off the containers and dumps out every tub of Play-Doh. Kai watches anxiously as Ally begins to smush the colorful cylinders together.
Three deep breaths. It’s okay. She’s just a kid, Kai reminds herself, practicing her favorite breathing exercise. After relaxing her brain and body, Kai joins Ally by selecting a cylinder of teal Play-Doh. She pushes the Play-Doh into the table so she can begin to mold it into some fantastic shape.
Thunk. Something hard inside the glob of Play-Doh hits the table, nearly breaking Kai’s finger in the process. As she shakes her right hand, trying to move past the pain, she pulls apart the Play-Doh to see what rock-hard item hides inside. Please don’t be a tooth, Kai thinks.
It’s not a tooth. Instead, the teal mass of Play-Doh yields a shimmery, sparkling, 400-karat diamond.
“What the–”
“Kai, look what I made!” Ally proclaims as she displays her multi-colored Play Doh castle. However, when her small blue eyes fall on the shiny diamond, the little girl’s mouth drops into a comical “O” shape. Kai immediately drops the diamond into the pile of Play-Doh.
“Oh, that looks great!” Kai exclaims, trying to move past the awkward moment.
“What was that?” Ally inquires.
“What do you mean?”
“The shiny thing you were holding. What was it?”
“It’s nothing Ally. Let me see your castle–”
“No, tell me what it is!” Ally roars, her face turning pink.
“Okay, okay.” Kai concedes, fishing the diamond out of the Play-Doh pile. “This is a 400-karat diamond.”
“Ooh. It’s so pretty. Why is it 400 carrots? Is it orange inside?”
“No, karats are how diamonds are measured.” Kai stares intensely at the diamond in her hand. She sighs deeply, lifting her gaze to meet Ally’s. “And unless I’m mistaken, this 400-karat diamond is the one that was stolen from my tribe by jewel thieves.”
“What’s that mean?” Ally asks quizzically, her head tilting like a lost puppy. Speaking more to herself than to her charge, Kai launches into the story.
“Long ago, when white people stole our land, they gave my tribe this diamond as a gift. They wanted to pacify us. About a year ago a band of jewel thieves, who had already been stealing our handmade jewelry, got their hands on this diamond.”
“How do you know it’s the same one?”
“Do you see that little hint of teal on this side?” Kai asks, pointing with her pinky toward the distinctive mark. Ally nods, and Kai continues. “That’s how I know. I only saw the diamond our tribe received once, but I would recognize that mark anywhere.”
“So how did the diamond get here?” Ally’s innocence radiates through her voice as she questions her babysitter’s implications.
“Ally,” a third voice interrupts, “Go to your room right now.” There in the doorway, with flames dancing in her eyes, stands Mrs. Marshall.
Kai’s heart sinks to her stomach and she drops the diamond back into the Play-Doh.
“Hi Mrs. Marshall, what are you doing home?” Kai asks nervously.
“Yeah mommy, you’re early!” Ally jumps up to greet her mother with arms outstretched.
“Ally, I said go to your room, sweetheart.”
“Okay! Just wait until Kai tells you her diamond story. I got a story and it’s not even bedtime yet!” Ally relays excitedly. Kai winces as the little girl exits the room, skipping. Ally seems blissfully unaware of the showdown about to occur between the two women.
“Mrs. Marshall, now that you’re home, I’d better be on my way.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” The older woman spits at Kai as the babysitter tries to escape.
“Look, I don’t want to do this, but you’re a thief. I’ll call the police right now if I have to.”
“Or maybe I should call the police, Kai. Maybe I should call and inform them that some Indian girl came over to babysit, but when I came home alone because I forgot to buy my opera ticket I found her trying to drown my baby girl in the bathtub.”
“What?” Kai shouts, outraged. “You’re crazy, lady.”
“Maybe I am.” Mrs. Marshall seethes. “But you’ll never make it long enough to tell anyone– hey!” Mrs. Marshall finally notices the cellphone squeezed tightly in Kai’s hand as she tries to dial 9-1-1. Panicstricken, Kai locks eyes with Mrs. Marshall and spots a fury that scares her worse than anything has before. With that, Mrs. Marshall lunges, tackling the babysitter to the ground.
“Give me the phone!”
“Give my people back their diamond!”
The two women wrestle violently across the playroom floor. Play-Doh, markers, and an assortment of toys fly across the room and hit the brightly colored walls. Flailing limbs catch on the drawing table and the rocking chair as the two women battle it out. Soon enough, Mrs. Marshall hovers over Kai, pinning the girl down. The older woman’s hand gets tangled up in one of Kai’s long black braids as the two continue to struggle.
“Why are you doing this? You have a husband! You have a daughter!” Kai gasps for air with her face contorted in anger. She manages to free her hands and push back against Mrs. Marshall’s petite but strong frame.
“And I also have a crew. I need to support and protect them as much as I do Ally and my husband.” Mrs. Marshall pants, trying to force Kai’s hands back on to the ground. “That means I can’t have any nosy Indians interfering in our business.”
Kai cries out in pain as Mrs. Marshall pins her wrists to the fuzzy blue carpet beneath them. From Kai’s peculiar angle, the sun painted on the playroom ceiling looks like a halo around Mrs. Marshall’s head. Distracted for a moment by this unsettling visual, Kai pauses in her resistance. Mrs. Marshall takes the opportunity to clasp her hands around Kai’s throat and start to squeeze. Kai chokes out half a scream and tries to pry away the old woman’s hands; nevertheless, Kai’s attempts are useless. Mrs. Marshall bares her teeth and squeezes increasingly harder.
The older woman watches with bitter satisfaction as Kai kicks, resists, and struggles for breath. Despite the joy Mrs. Marshall feels surging through her powerful hands as Kai’s eyes bulge, she also feels slightly guilty. Somewhere within this girl, this necessary sacrifice, there remains a little girl, much like her Ally. Killing was so satisfying before she gave birth, but nowadays Mrs. Marshall feels a twinge of regret every time a face purples or a bone breaks. Nevertheless, Kai’s lack of resistance alerts Mrs. Marshall that her task is complete, and she relaxes. She gets up and flexes her hands, which are sore from the choking.
Deciding to wash away the guilt with a glass of wine, Mrs. Marshall heads toward the kitchen. She still has plenty of time to have a drink and bury the body before her drunken husband stumbles inside.
“Mommy, can I come out of my room yet?” A small voice calls from down the hall.
“Not yet, sweetheart!” Mrs. Marshall replies coolly. “How about you take a quick nap and then you and mommy can watch a movie?”
“Okay!” the voice answers eagerly.
“A movie sounds great!”
Mrs. Marshall whips around to see Kai, panting heavily, with a wooden stake pointed right at her enemy’s chest.
“Hold on Kai, let’s talk about–” Mrs. Marshall interrupts her own plea with an agonizing scream as Kai stabs her one . . . two . . . three times. Kai’s wooden stake, made from the playroom rocking chair, now protrudes horribly from Mrs. Marshall’s stomach. Kai watches with mingled horror and relief as Mrs. Marshall collapses, blood gushing from her wound. Gasping for air much like Kai had only minutes ago, Mrs. Marshall glares up at the babysitter.
“I can’t believe you would do this to Ally.” The older woman sputters, with blood now pouring from her lips.
Kai leans down, her eyes brimming with tearful rage.
“No. You did this to Ally.”
Kai rises, moving away from the dying woman and toward the house phone laying on the counter. Mrs. Marshall’s cries fill the kitchen, and Kai dials 9-1-1. As the phone rings, she grabs some hand towels from a linen closet and brings them to her victim. Pressing the towel to the feeble woman’s wounds, Kai wonders whether this one choice will be the end of her. If only Kai had simply left the quaint little house and never looked back . . .
“9-1-1 what’s your emergency?”