The Keeper of Stories

On the way to work, Janice tries not to stare at the handsome bus driver who looks like a rugged geography teacher who might have climbed mountains. She returns to the elderly mother-in-law of Mrs. YeahYeahYeah, whom she learned has a “Lady” title and whose husband was thought to be an important spy in addition to Master of the college. When the woman answers the door, Janice asks four questions: Will the woman tell her about Becky Sharp? The woman says she will. Is the story about Becky true? She says it is. Will the woman let Janice organize the books in the house? She says she will. Janice states more than inquires that she must be called Janice and that she will call the woman Mrs. B (not “Lady” anything). The woman agrees and shuts the door.

In a brief shift out of Janice’s viewpoint, the bus driver watches Janice and thinks she is attractive.

Janice has coffee with Fiona while Adam plays with Decius. Fiona expresses worry for Adam, who refuses to return to counseling. After Fiona mentions how much Adam loves Decius, Janice says that she can bring Decius more often. Fiona mentions that she and John, her husband, tried to hide John’s depression from Adam, but Janice wonders if Adam knew more than Fiona realized. Children often know more than they let on, as she recalls from childhood.

Mrs. B begins Becky’s story. Becky was born in 1890s Paris to a chare woman and a cab driver. She had a younger sister and a baby brother; the parents loved the baby boy very much. Becky was tasked with watching the boy while they worked. Here, Mrs. B asks Janice if she has siblings. Janice explains that her younger sister lives in Canada and that she sees her only rarely.

Mrs. B resumes the tale: When he was four, the beloved baby brother was hit by a delivery van while Becky was daydreaming. Janice asks if the brother died, but Mrs. B leaves the story on this cliffhanger. Afterward, Janice recalls her last visit to Canada, when her sister wrote a note just before she returned to England: “I remember what you did” (67).

On Janice’s next cleaning visit, Mrs. B does not bring up Becky. Janice reminds the old woman of her promise to share the story. Mrs. B curtly tells Janice that it was no promise. Janice mentions news she heard from Stan, a college porter (security doorman): Mr. NoNoNotNow (Mrs. B’s son, Tiberius) is scheming with the college to sell and convert Mrs. B’s home into a virtual-reality space for students. Mrs. B is angry and shocked. She says that she will have to give the matter “some thought.”

She returns to Becky’s story: The young brother died, and the parents sent Becky to live with nuns. Becky was consistently troublesome while living at the convent and was dismissed at 15. She stayed with a family of aristocrats for a year and then arrived at her parents’ house pregnant.

Here, Mrs. B explains that she fell in love with her husband, Augustus, while in Russia and implies that she and her husband were both spies for MI6 (the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence agency). She mentions that she will call Fred Spink, a lawyer, regarding the college’s plans for her house. Mrs. B nicknames this man Mycroft (an allusion to Mycroft Holmes, the older brother of Sherlock Holmes in the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle).

Before Janice leaves, Mrs. B asks her to inform her of anything she overhears between Tiberius and Mrs. YeahYeahYeah, but Janice refuses.

Janice inadvertently says, “Oh, it’s you” (77), to the geography teacher driver when she gets on the bus. He smiles, puzzled. She is mortified but spends the ride thinking about how some people’s relationships stem from one perfect moment like Mrs. B meeting her husband in a Russian coffee shop.

Another client, Arthur Leader, met the love of his life when a lady and her then-boyfriend reported the theft of the boyfriend’s rain jacket to Arthur, a policeman on duty at the local precinct. He located the rain jacket from the thief “but stole the girl” (79), only to learn upon his wife’s death that she fell in love with him that night at the precinct too. Janice is so caught up thinking about the value of single perfect moments that it takes her time to remember that she is married.

The door hangs open at Decius’s house, so she enters to ensure that Decius has not escaped. She hears Tiberius angrily discussing his mother. He declares that she is a burden who should be out of her home so that the college can use it, that he never dreamed that Janice would start cleaning there, and that money for his mother’s expenses is no concern. Janice slips out before she is caught eavesdropping.

On her next cleaning day, Janice takes care with her hair and clothes in case the morning bus has her driver, but it does not. Mrs. B notes that Janice’s clothes are nice enough for dinner out at a pub with steak as the special. When Janice makes no answer, Mrs. B comments, “Ah, so not your husband. Like that, is it?” (86). Ashamed, Janice goes to clean the bathroom.

Mrs. B seems to feel apologetic later and continues Becky’s story. Becky’s parents gave away her baby daughter, and Becky became a sex worker. She also took fashion and elocution lessons from a madam and attended high-society events. Mrs. B suddenly stops to ask Janice if she would rather be a sex worker or a cleaner. Janice does not answer, and Mrs. B reveals that everyone she asked highly recommended Janice. Janice offers to make them both hot chocolate, and Mrs. B accepts.

Becky soon worked her way toward becoming a significant man’s courtesan, but he eventually paid her and went away. Mrs. B says that she will end the story for the day with Becky in Paris and the war approaching. Janice departs, feeling unsure about whose side she might be on in the coming conflict between Mrs. B and her son.