In the original text, author storysmith achieved a wonderful balance between Kate exploiting her daughter’s trust and the disbelief/surrealism in the scene in general. I find myself constantly coming back to this interchange to improve it, over and over. This is also where Linda’s younger age in the original text (a more trusting 14 instead of a more resourceful 18) would have helped. but I’ve resolved not feature minors in this visualization.
I don’t think I achieved the balance at such a high level as storysmith, to be honest - but hopefully it still works for readers here.