“I’ve never been put into such a position before,” Miriam said, peering inside her home. The sight made her sick and she put her hands over her face. “What am I going to do?”
“I just said you could stay at my house.”
“I know what you said, Gloria! I’m trying to talk myself into it.” I watched as Miriam peeked inside her doorway again, moaning. I felt like doing the same.
If Dalton heard the commotion out front, he never bothered to investigate. Miriam retrieved the suitcase from her trip out of the car trunk and stepped inside my house. She stopped at the sight. “Oh, my.”
“We’re helping Miss Glory put packages together for Christmas,” Heddy said, making a path through the living room. “Just a few staples that everyone needs to…”
“I won’t call you Miss Glory,” Miriam said, turning to me. “That’s a ridiculous name for a grown woman. During my stay, I will call you Gloria. Where do I put my valise?”
I kicked boxes aside with my foot and led Miriam to the den I had converted into another bedroom down the hall from the living room. Whiskers leaped from his perch on the bottom step and Miriam jumped. “Is that always inside?”
“Most of the time. He goes out to do his business but comes back when he’s finished.”
“Cats are simply rats with shorter noses,” Miriam said, grumbling under her breath. I looked to Dalton and Heddy and they widened their eyes, lifting their hands as if defenseless to help. I waved my arm at them and sighed. It was going to be a long four days.
Four
The love of our neighbor in all its fullness simply means being able to say to him, “What are you going through?”
—Simone Weil
Chaz’s new shift started at four the next day. The store closed at nine, so there would only be five hours when he’d have to deal with people. With the exception of Larry and the rest of the janitorial team, at night he’d have the place to himself to do what he wanted. He wandered through Women’s Clothing and saw Ray there. He was pointing to a woman with twins and pretending to gush over them. She pushed the baby stroller closer to Chaz and he stopped. “Your twins are really cute, Mrs. Grobinski.” She beamed and went into a story about Nicholas crawling but how little Natalie was content to just watch her brother do all the work. Mrs. Grobinski talked and talked and Chaz was stuck. He didn’t have the patience to be a “courtesy officer.” Ray saluted him and laughed his way into the men’s department. Twenty minutes later Chaz carried Mrs. Grobinski’s bags to the car and helped put the twins in their car seats.
He made his way to the mailroom and nosed through the letters still sitting in the bins from the afternoon mail. “It hasn’t come,” Kelly said.
He turned to see her standing in the door. She was pretty in an understated way. “Just curious,” he said. “Hey, what if I’m not here when it comes? What will you do with it?”
She looked around the room and pointed to the top shelf. “I can put it right there under the air return.”
Perfect. “That’d be great. Thanks.” He turned to leave but stopped, looking at her. “You know, I don’t come in until four and if that package comes early in the day maybe you could call me and I could come in and take a look at it.”
“Sure.”
“Or if you have the time, maybe you could bring it to my apartment?” He hadn’t been with a woman since moving to town. He’d lived with a lot of women over the years but moved on when they felt compelled to change him.
She smiled and said she’d love to bring the package to his apartment.
When the dinner hour came, Miriam chose to remain in her room, where she had been since the day before. Heddy whispered throughout the evening, afraid of disturbing her. “It’s all right,” I said. “There’s no need to walk on eggshells.”
“Has she come out at all?” Heddy asked, whispering.
“I left this morning to take Marv Lichton to the doctor’s office. Then Lakisha called and said Arianna was sick at school, so I picked her up and took her home. Maybe her royal highness broke out then.”
“Did she eat anything?” Heddy said.
“I don’t know. But if she gets thirsty I know where she can find some water.” I laughed at myself and fell onto the sofa, pounding the cushions. The bedroom door opened down the hall and I put my finger to my lips, but cackled again when the door closed.
Miriam finally emerged from her room at eleven. She crept through the living room and turned off the porch light that was shining in her window. At eleven fifteen I walked downstairs and turned it back on. Miriam flicked it off again at eleven twenty. I was confident I could outlast her and had it shining bright at eleven thirty. Miriam crept through the living room at eleven forty-five.