When Ted padded into her room, she sat up so quickly that Ted made a frightened hiss, and Jennifer turned over. Ted backed into the hall, and Laura seized her clothes and followed him. “You get dressed,” whispered Ted, “and I’ll get some food.” He creaked off down the stairs, leaving Laura cringing. High Castle was less nerve-wracking than this. She put her clothes on, started down the stairs with her shoes in her hand, then remembered the flashlight under Ted’s pillow. It was half hers, through one of their parents’ infrequent departures from good sense. But since she and Jennifer were obliged to share a room, while Ted had his own, it had been decided that the flashlight would be safer under Ted’s pillow. Laura left her shoes on the stairs, fetched the flashlight, started back down the stairs, and tripped over the shoes. The kitchen was dark except for a patch of moonlight that made the refrigerator look like a polar bear. Laura did not care to turn the flashlight on it.
