Housekeeping

Sylvie comes home in spring, shortly after the aunts write to her. Lily and Nona remembered her as being self-absorbed, but when the 35-year-old arrives, Ruthie notes her as being gentle. Lily and Nona are pleased with Sylvie and hope she will be able to raise the girls. Sylvie tells the girls she will get them some presents. The next morning, when the girls wake up, they find Sylvie eating oyster crackers near the stove and wearing a coat. The girls are worried that the coat implies she is going to leave. Sylvie talks about how great train travel is, and she tells the girls she will take them on a train sometime. Lucille uses a coaxing voice to ask Sylvie about Helen because adults do not want to talk about the girls’ mother to them. Sylvie says she was nice and pretty. Sylvie tells them their father sold farm equipment, but Sylvie saw him only once, on the wedding day. Sylvie does not know where he is now. The girls remember a letter their mother got from their father, who was supposedly in a relationship with a cocktail waitress, but their mother tore up the letter without reading it.