Phoebe Judge

She took all the pieces home, cut them out, and glued them together onto a new sheet of paper.

She painted over the edges of each piece of cut paper with black ink.

When she made copies, it all looked like one piece.

Vinnie's book about changing your identity had information about how to get an embossing stamp for any state.

They got one with the New York state seal and stamped their fake birth certificates.

Karen kept Amy and Aaron's first names, but changed their last names to Palmer.

I would be so worried about new names and how am I going to get the kids enrolled in school.

I mean, were you nervous about how this was going to work?

When they first got to Boulder, they'd made a deal with a real estate agent to live in a condo for free if they repainted it.

For the first week, they didn't go outside much.

It rained for days, and they were too nervous to be seen.

Karen got a TV from Goodwill for Aaron and Amy to watch, while she and Vinny painted.

They stayed in the condo for a few months, but that fall, the real estate agent called and said that the condo had sold.

They would need to move out.

but he said there was a house for sale that they might like.

He took them to see it.

Vinny loved it.

Karen was worried about how they would buy it.

They still didn't even have bank accounts, so they couldn't get a loan, and they didn't want to use their real names for a credit check.

They decided they had to tell the real estate agent that they were in hiding.