“I’m ... I’m fine.” Piper took a steadying breath. She had to stay calm, for the girls. “I just ... um. I think we got a delivery intended for someone else.”
They all turned to stare at the box on the kitchen counter.
“What is it?” Caitlin whispered.
Piper swallowed. “Worms.”
Olivia, always the most excitable of her three children, began to dance up and down on her toes, shrieking. “Where? Where? Ihateworms!”
“Calm down,” Piper hissed. “They’re contained.”
“Are you going to return them?” Bella asked. “Like when we order tap shoes and they’re too small?”
“That’s a good idea.” Piper forced a smile. “You girls go back down to the basement and keep watching your movie. I’m going to call the company now and ask them to come and pick up their worms.”
“Can I see them first?” Bella asked. She had a higher tolerance for squeamish things than her sisters did.
“All right.”
They all moved slowly toward the island. Bella climbed onto a counter stool and looked down into the belly of the beast, or the box as it were.
“Ew ... they’re alive ...” she said, wrinkling her nose. “They’removing.”
Piper shuddered and forced herself to look inside the box again. Her skin began to crawl as she gazed down at a container filled with hundreds of small, plump yellow worms.
“Okay. That’s it. Show’s over. Go back to your movie. I’ll handle our ... delivery.”
She glanced at the paper that had come with the box and found a customer-service number for Pet Lovers’ Depot, purveyor of live insects for birds, chickens, geckos, and other exotic pets.
After waiting on hold for ten minutes, a real live human customer-service representative named Angel came on the line.
Piper explained what had happened. Angel asked her to spell her first and last names, followed by her address.
“That’s weird,” Angel said. “Your address is correct. I mean, your address is the shipping address we have on file.”
“But I never ordered this,” Piper said.
“Would you mind giving me the last four digits of your credit card?”
Piper complied and heard the clatter of a keyboard on the other end of the line.
“Hmm. We have a different credit card on file. So it’s your name and address, but someone else’s credit card.”
A sick feeling settled over Piper, like she’d eaten something bad, bad like a box of mealworms.
“Angel, can you give me the name attached to the credit card you have on file?” she asked.
“I’m really sorry, but I can’t. I’m not allowed to share credit card information.”
Damn.Of course she couldn’t.
“Listen, could you do me a favor?”
“Sure,” Angel said cheerfully.
“If anyone tries to have something sent to this address again, can you call us first to verify before shipping?”
There was a pause. Then Angel said, “You think it’s a prank?”
