When Annie was about eight years old, her family moved from Edgerton Avenue to Richland Lane —not far, to the other side of Frick Park. Annie describes that the family, “expanded into a brick house on two lots,” and her parents, evidently now richer, spent a great deal of time and effort renovating their house. It was in this home, two years after they moved in that Annie’s second sister, Molly, was born. Annie explains that every August when her and Amy returned from their grandparents lake house, “we saw that workmen had altered the house in our absence.” Upon moving, Annie’s parents had also joined a country club, where the kids would often spend time. However, Annie disliked the country-club pools and preferred swimming in Lake Erie where she had the freedom to leave whenever she pleased and did not feel the need to behave in a certain way to please the country-club society which she characterizes as “complex and constraining.” One morning while swimming at the country club Annie spots an unfamiliar red bird.
