little brother for one night. And sure enough, this little girl whom I know so well, who has her father’s quick, face-lighting grin, jumps out of the station wagon as soon as Betty pulls to the curb.
“Mommy, I almost forgot to pack my pajamas! Can you believe it?” she says, headed for me. Then she stops, distracted by the house in the background. “Wow, this place is huge.”
“Which pajamas did you pack?” I say.
Jessie purses her lips, thinking. I can see in her face the teenager she will too soon become. “The blue ones with the pink seam.”
“You don’t look like you’re working,” Eddie Jr. says from behind his sister. He is unhappy because he wants to go to a sleepover, too. Or, at the very least, he does not want to be left all alone with Mrs. Larchmont on a Saturday.
“Mrs. McLaughlin, the woman I take care of, is inside,” I say. “I just came out here for a few minutes to see you two. But I won’t be late, Mr. Bean. You and I will have dinner together, just you and me. It’ll be our date night.”
He smiles, a slower version of his sister’s.
“We have to go now, Mom,” Jessie says. “I don’t want to be late.”
“You’re not going to be late, I promise. I just want another minute or two of your time. Can you spare that, please?”
Jessie is bouncing on her toes now. “Mother, why? Are you trying to torture me?”
“Hey!” Eddie points behind me.
“Please don’t do that, it’s rude.” Eddie is forever pointing at something, no matter how many times I scold him. His arm seems to shoot up from his side without his noticing. His favorite things to point at are large machines like bulldozers, eighteen-wheelers, and fire trucks. I don’t let him roll the car windows down when I’m driving because I’m afraid his arm will shoot out and be hit by the passing eighteen-wheeler that has caught his excitement.
“But it’s the man that almost hurt my lizard. Remember, when I told you about that?”
I turn around now and Jessie does, too. I see Louis standing at the base of the front steps, looking confused to see all of us standing on his lawn.
I wave to Louis and say in a low voice, “Eddie, that’s someone from Mrs. McLaughlin’s family. You’ve never met him. Don’t point.”
“No, Mom, that is the guy,” Jessie says. “He was on our front lawn the day camp ended early because of the lice.” She automatically touches her long black hair, which she has insisted I check nightly since the outbreak at camp. Contracting lice and then having to cut off her hair is her worst fear. “You never believe us.”
But suddenly I do believe her. I watch Louis walk toward us. I hear Jessie say, “That is the guy.” Something I have known for a while is rising to the surface.
He has almost reached us now, an awkward smile on his face. His hands are in his pockets. “Hello there,” he says.
“Hello,” I say, in a polite voice a little harder than my own.
Louis flicks his gaze from the ground to my face. He looks to Eddie. “We had a little run-in with a lizard, didn’t we?”
Eddie giggles behind his hand.
Of course it was Louis. I realize now that I knew it all along. The facts come at me in a rush. He is the one who arranged for the lawn to be cut. For my car to be serviced. The gutters to be cleaned. He arranged for me to have the cushy job with his mother-in-law.
“I happened to be in the neighborhood that afternoon, and wanted to see if you needed any work done on your house.” Louis’s face brightens slightly. “I’d like to check inside and make sure your wiring is all right. Would you be comfortable with that?”
I hadn’t looked closely enough to see the truth because I hadn’t wanted to. I’d let myself be distracted. I grew attached to Mrs. McLaughlin, I believed in her stories and dreams. I even called information and gathered the phone numbers of a few of my brothers and sisters. The numbers are written on a piece of pink construction paper and taped to my refrigerator.
“That won’t be necessary,” I say. “Jessie, you don’t want to be late for your sleepover. Betty,” I call to the woman standing at the curb, “will you please take the children?”
“Don’t yell at him, Mom,” Jessie says, with her best imitation of teenaged