The Gretchen Question by Jessica Treadway

Author:Jessica Treadway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Delphinium Books
Published: 2020-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

I watched to make sure Trudy had gone into her own house before I unlocked Grettie’s and stepped inside. Everything was in order, as I knew it would be. Grettie has always been the kind of person who cleans up pots as she cooks, alphabetizes the books on her shelves by their titles, and uses a ruler to draw a line after the recipient’s name when she writes a check. In college, I used her notes instead of my own, even if we’d been sitting next to each other in the same class. People are often surprised to learn how organized she is, maybe because her appearance suggests the opposite: even indoors, that frizzy hair flies away from her face, and she never bothers to try to keep it in place with an elastic or band. It makes her look untethered, unrestrained, free. But it also gives the impression that she doesn’t care. It’s a false impression, which anyone who wants to be in her circle must come quickly to understand and respect, or else be refused entrance.

Even when Cam and Bella were toddlers, you would never find a stray toy on the stairs or a piece of cracker under a sofa cushion. Those kids had been taught from before the age of walking that it was their responsibility to keep their play areas neat. I thought it was too much to ask of children, so I always helped Will tidy up after himself. It had an unfortunate effect, which was that even now he leaves plates in the sink for me to wash and laundry for me to do. Well, soon enough he’ll have to learn to take care of these things himself, the hard way. Unless Sosi is willing to pick up where I left off, but that’s not my problem.

In the kitchen I found a surprise: an empty tube of Pringles overturned on the counter, surrounded by crumbs. Grettie always bought Pringles because she said that if they had to keep potato chips in the house, at least they’d have ones you could stack. There was no way either Grettie or Jack would have left the house for a week-long vacation knowing that those crumbs were there, or without putting the empty tube in the recycling bin. Feeling a small but distinct uneasiness, I set the tube upright.

No sign of the trash trucks yet; no sound of them even on a street in the distance. I walked upstairs and wandered into Grettie and Jack’s bedroom, feeling vaguely guilty even though I told myself they would not have minded.

It was rare for me to be in their house without any of the family present. In fact, I couldn’t remember if it had ever happened before. Although I had been in her bedroom plenty of times, sitting on the bed while Grettie got ready for us to go somewhere together. With anyone else, it would have bothered me that I had to wait. But since it was Grettie, I never minded.

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