My life is now rooted in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Opioid addiction is widespread, and its consequences fill the local paper, The Caledonian-Record, with crime, child abuse, overdoses, and sometimes, also, hope and redemption. The “Cal Rec” does a great job covering the epidemic, and I’d like to thank the Managing Editor Dana Gray for allowing me to use the paper’s name. My particular thanks go to reporter Robert Blechl, who gave me some crucial steers. All the news stories in The Underneath are my own creation, though several are based on tragic fact. Hope Bentley gave me vital feedback on an early draft and my mother, Rosalind Finn, gave insight on a later one. Thank you both. Kate Shaw, my agent, continues to correct my course when I veer into self-pity or blind panic. I’m so proud to be published in the US again by Two Dollar Radio. Eric Obenauf and Eliza Wood-Obenauf are passionate about their books, and I love their sensibility, style and humanity. In the UK, Helen Francis at Head of Zeus swam upstream for me: thank you. Thank you to my daughters, Molly and Pearl, for all the times they helped me stack wood, feed the horses, and clean the house; mostly, for all their fierce, reminding love.