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Other strange things happened, too. During the first few weeks of school not one but several kids fell off the playground equipment at Queen Elizabeth Elementary. Nicola, stuck inside during recess correcting her spelling, happened to see some of these falls.

Nicola didn’t mind staying in. There was nothing to do at recess now anyway.

Last year Nicola and Mackenzie Stewart had made up games, like ABC Gum World. They saved their Already Been Chewed gum and brought it to school in baggies. At recess and lunch they snuck away to a private corner of the schoolyard behind a smooth-barked tree. There they rechewed the gum to soften it, then shaped it into animals and people. They stuck their creations on the tree — a whole pink and purple Already Been Chewed Gum World they invented stories about.

Nicola remembered this while gazing out the classroom window and not correcting her spelling. The window looked over the playground. Lost in thought, she barely noticed from the corner of her eye what fell. A kid in a green jacket. He’d climbed all the way to the top of the jungle gym, then tried to stand. Arms windmilling, he plunged.

A playground monitor rushed over to check on the fallen boy. At just that moment, a kid at the top of the slide lost his balance, too, and fell. Then another.

It was so strange, children dropping like apples out of a tree. Nicola almost laughed.

The next day the school board sent out an inspector who wound every fun thing in the playground with yellow tape. The principal, Mrs. Dicky, announced over the intercom that there had been some seismic activity in the area.

“What’s that?” asked Lindsay Feeler, a new girl with short brown hair and pink-framed glasses who sat next to Nicola this year instead of Mackenzie.

Ms. Phibbs shushed her. Last year Ms. Phibbs had welcomed questions that deepened their understanding of the world. This year she said they talked too much.

Mrs. Dicky declared the playground closed until further notice.

* * *

Jared, of course, blamed June Bug for driving away Julie Walters-Chen. He hated June Bug for it. But when he came in the door, June Bug still rushed to greet him and wag all around him.

“Go to hell,” Jared told the little dog.

“You swore,” Nicola said.

“It’s not a swear. It’s a place. And that’s where that dog is going.”

Her little brother, Jackson, who was in kindergarten, imitated everything Jared said and did. He would chant, “Go to hell! Go to hell!” to the poor little dog, who wagged excitedly, not realizing he was saying something mean.

When their father, Terence, heard Jackson say, “Go to hell,” and found out that Jared had taught him, he lost his temper, which didn’t happen very often.

“You watch your language, young man!” he yelled at Jared, who stormed off to his room and slammed the door. Jackson got a time-out, too, for saying a bad word.

“June Bug should get a time-out!” he wailed. “She ate my Ferrari!”

“She ate it?”

“The wheels!” He ran and got it, another disabled Matchbox car.

Terence said, “Time out, June Bug! Nicola, put her in your room. You, too, Jackson! Go to your room!”

Nicola went with June Bug. Together they lay on the bed. June Bug chewed Nicola’s long braid, while Jackson tantrummed through the wall. He was still bawling when their mother came home from work.

Over Jackson’s wails, Nicola heard Mina ask ­Terence what had happened.

She heard her father’s reply. His exact words. They froze her blood.

“It’s not working out with that dog.”