could cause a problem, and we have the cleaning lady only a few times a week now. But the house is so big and it gets so dusty in here.” Ruby made another face, like she was put out by how huge the house was.
“Not a problem,” Martha said. She noticed that Ruby was also barefoot, and that her toes were painted a perfect deep red. Her feet looked tan, and even her toes looked thin and elegant. Martha covered her left foot with her right foot and hoped Ruby wouldn’t look at her toes.
Ruby motioned for Martha to follow her, and she led her to a sitting room off the front hall. Martha sat down in a light pink flowered chair, and crossed her feet again. Ruby perched herself on a strange little piece of furniture in the corner, a green stool, that was shaped like a mushroom. Was it a muffet? Martha had never seen one, but she was pretty sure that’s what it was.
“So, I brought a copy of my résumé, although I know you’ve already seen it.” Martha handed the piece of paper over to her, and Ruby took it but didn’t look down.
“I don’t know how much the agency told you, but I can fill you in. My father’s almost eighty and he’s been having some trouble lately. He’s generally been in really good health, but a couple of months ago they found some tumors on his spine. They were benign, but they had to operate, and the surgery was hard for him to recover from. We got night nurses to come in, just to make sure that he didn’t need anything, and that seemed like it was enough. But then last week, he was walking to the bathroom and he fell. He was alone, because Jaz had run out, and so he was on the floor for almost an hour.”
“Oh no,” Martha said. She wasn’t sure if Ruby wanted a response, but she felt like she should give one. Ruby nodded and looked pleased.
“He didn’t break anything, thank God. But there was some bruising and he’s still a little sore.”
“Who—who is Jaz?”
“Oh, Jaz is sort of the keeper of the house. She was our nanny when we were little and then she just stayed on, because we couldn’t have made it without her. She does the grocery shopping and just sort of makes sure things run. You know, some light cleaning, the daily dishes, garbage, that sort of stuff.”
“Great,” Martha said.
“We thought it would be enough, to have Jaz here during the days when my father was here, you know, to stay with him until the night nurses came. But Jaz has said that she can’t do that, that she needs to be able to run errands. She’s kept a pretty loose schedule for the past few years, so I guess that’s hard to change.” Ruby shrugged, like she didn’t really believe this, but there wasn’t much to do about it. She closed her eyes, arched her back, and stretched her arms up in the air.
“So, you need someone during the days,” Martha said.
Ruby righted herself and opened her eyes. “Right. Sorry, I’m just exhausted. I’ve been filling in most days until we got this solved. Anyway, it’s not such a hard job. He really doesn’t need much attention, just someone here to make sure that he has what he needs, that he can get his meals, all of that.”
“Great,” Martha said again.
“He’s not much for television, though, which can limit his entertainment. I should tell you that.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
The doorbell rang, and the chimes went through the house again. “Would you excuse me?” Ruby asked. “That’s probably the cleaning lady. I’ve told her to use the key, but …” She turned her palms up, like, What can you do with these people? Ruby pronounced cleaning lady very clearly, like she wanted to say maid but knew she shouldn’t.
Martha heard the door open in the other room and heard Ruby say to the lady, “I’m not going to tell you again, use your key!” She said it in a funny tone, like she was trying to make a joke, but it came out sounding kind of mean. The woman scooted through the hall and into the other room without looking at Martha.
Ruby came back into the room and shook her hair back, gathered it in her hands like she was going to pull it back in a ponytail, and then let it go again.
“So, do you