Thrilled for You

The whole street had been waiting for this baby.

So when Marla announced her pregnancy at the Hendersons’ Halloween party, the table erupted exactly the way it was supposed to.

Everyone did the arithmetic and got a miracle.

I did the arithmetic and got March.

I’m Claire. I’m the one who drove Marla’s husband to his vasectomy in March. Calvin is my brother. Keeping his secrets is practically a family tradition.

So I raised my glass. I smiled. I toasted the miracle.

Then I watched the street close around her.

They were so happy. Meals appeared. Advice appeared. People Marla had never met appeared. One couple drove forty miles to celebrate a baby that wasn’t theirs.

When she asked for privacy, she was ungrateful. When she insisted, she was unwell. And when she started telling me she was afraid, the street just smiled and told her she was glowing.

A street that would do anything for Marla’s baby is starting to look like a street that would do anything.

Thrilled for You is a darkly funny psychological thriller short story, the first Juniper Court story set in the world of Britney King’s New Hope novels. Read it in one unsettling sitting.

For readers of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives — a street that smiles while it closes in.