ESCALATION

Guest host Hope Davis presents two stories in which things get out of hand.  Rumors and recriminations fly in “Belles Lettres,” by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, as rival mothers defend their daughters’ reputations at a posh school--at any cost.  The readers are Eboni Booth, Shalewa Sharpe, and Mary Karr.   And we hear Shirley Jackson’s lighter side in  “About Two Nice People,” in which neighbors seem to be getting mixed messages from one another.  The readers are  Lilli Cooper, Ethan Slater, and Julie Halston.