looked at the screen. My mother was calling, or not my mother, because she was standing in front of me looking miserable and humiliated. Jimmy. I closed my phone and put it back in my bag.
“Thank you, though.” I opened the bag and pulled out the bagel with strawberry jelly bleeding out. “This will save me time.” I already had my coat on, my bag over my shoulder.
“Your hair looks nice,” she said. “But I like it curly, too.”
“Thanks.” I smiled. She was standing between me and the door.
“You’ll be gone all morning?”
I nodded. I couldn’t tell if she registered this news as good or bad. She appeared to be making calculations, maybe adding up hours in her head.
“What…uh…” I kept my voice light, unworried. “What are you going to do today?”
She slid past me, farther into the room. “I’m not sure yet. I’ve got to go find a KC Star. I’ll go somewhere and read the want ads.”
I said nothing. She took off her coat and draped it over her arm.
“Do you want to hang that up?”
“I don’t see a hook,” she said. “You’ve got one for your coat, but…”
I took her coat from her and opened my closet door. I had another hook inside the door for my robe. I took my robe down, tossed it on my bed, and hung her coat on the hook.
“Oh…you didn’t have to do—”
She shifted her weight, but continued to stand in front of the door. I didn’t want to ask her to move so I could leave. She already seemed so uncomfortable, like anywhere she stood would be wrong.
“Anything you want me to do before I leave?” She looked around the room. “I could sweep or something. I could clean the windows. It would make it brighter in here.”
“They’re fine,” I said. “You don’t have to do anything.”
She looked at me. “I don’t work until Thursday.”
“Oh,” I said. “Okay.”
“My supervisor gave me some time off.” She pushed her hair behind her ears. “I worked on Saturday, after I had to pack up everything in the van.” She was speaking quickly, and rolling her eyes as if bored by her own story. “I was late, of course, and then when I got there, I guess I looked a little…unkempt.” She reached into the bag for the other bagel. “That was her word, my supervisor’s. She’s a little bit older than you are. Or maybe younger.” She paused to smile. “Lindsay. She suggested I take several days off.” She tore off a piece of bagel, leaned over, and held it out for Bowzer. “I don’t think I was allowed to say no.”
Bowzer turned his snout away from the bagel. She frowned, looked at the piece he’d rejected, and popped it into her own mouth.
“Anyway…” She chewed politely, her hand covering her mouth. “Don’t worry. I’ll go somewhere for the day, a coffee shop or something. I’ll get out of your hair. I won’t come back until late.” She frowned. “You know what, though? I think I’ve lost my phone. Maybe it’s in one of the bags. Could you call it for me?”
I took a bite of my bagel, holding up one finger to tell her to wait while I thought of something to say. It would do no good to tell her Jimmy Liff had her phone. She would be better off just thinking it was lost until I could get it back to her. Also: if I started to tell her the whole story, I would never get out of the room.
“You can just call it from that,” I said, nodding toward the landline on the wall. “I’ve got to catch a bus.”
“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t want to make you late.”
I wrapped my scarf around my neck and walked quickly to the door. When I opened it, there was Marley Gould. She was wearing her ruffled nightgown, but she also had on pink lipstick and blush. She moved her head, trying to see over me.
“Is your mom still here?”
“NO,” I said, stepping in front of her. “MY MOM IS GONE. SHE ISN’T HERE ANYMORE.”
Behind me, I heard my closet door open and the jingling of Bowzer’s collar. I kept my eyes on Marley’s, my smile wide, until I heard the closet door shut.
“Oh.” She looked at my door. “Who were you talking to?”
“I was on the phone. Do you need something?” She already had her hair braided for the day, a pink ribbon tied around each end. She smelled faintly of