pillows and then hired me back a month later.
Mrs. Whitaker never canceled. Not once. Not in eight years. Even when she went to visit Susan in Oregon for two weeks at Christmas, she left a note and a check on the counter.
Carly — I’ll be away. Please come as usual. The plants need water and the house needs someone in it. — M.W.
I came as usual. I watered the plants. I dusted the piano. I didn’t know what she meant by the
house needs someone in it. I thought maybe she was worried about burglars.
The divorce was final in my second year of working for her. Darren moved to Columbus with his girlfriend and started seeing Willa every other weekend, and then once a month, and then mostly
on birthdays. Willa stopped asking when he was coming. That was harder to watch than anything he ever did to me.
In the third year, Willa had her first real asthma attack. We spent a night in the emergency room. The bill came three weeks later, and it was more money than I made in two months. I sat at my
kitchen table with that bill in front of me and put my head down on the table and didn’t lift it for a long time.
