As Jane picked up the newspaper that was on her front porch, she heard a familiar voice from across the street. She looked up and saw her friend Linda and ... Zoe? What was Zoe doing over there? By then she should have gotten to school already. But then she noticed something really odd about her daughter. She wasn't Goth. Not in the slightest. She seemed fairly normal, actually. What was going on?
"Bye, honey," Linda said to Zoe. "Have a good day at school."
"Bye, Mom."
Mom? Why did she call Linda "Mom"? What was happening?
After Zoe took off down the street, Linda looked over and saw Jane watching her. Then she crossed the street.
"Hi, Jane," Linda said.
Jane could only stare at her friend.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Why is Zoe acting like that?" Jane asked.
"Acting like what?"
"Like your daughter."
"Because she is my daughter. And thank god too. I wouldn't want her to end up like Stacey. I'm sure it's nothing you did, but Stacey seems pretty rebellious. All that gothic stuff, piercings and wearing black all the time. You know."
Stacey was Linda's daughter, not Jane's. And what was she saying? That Zoe was normal now and Stacey wasn't? What was happening? It felt like some sort of weird Twilight Zone episode, only it was real, and she was stuck in the middle of it.
