Karen made me uncomfortable. I didn’t like her face: her makeup revealed a hasty hand, her skin, often uplit, looked like a thin sheet thrown over a bare mattress, and her eyes were dangerous voids concealed with emotion, like deep hole traps used to catch animals in the forest. She scatted to herself the first time we “met.” But even as I began to feel unnerved, I didn’t stop playing with her. I told myself it was because it was just a game, and I wanted to see what happened.