The Keeper of Stories

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death and death.

Janice cleans the home of Carrie-Louise, a polished and proper widow in her eighties. As a young woman, she met her husband when she stopped a street gang from beating a man. She pretended to be a policewoman, holding a store credit card like a badge and yelling at them. One hit her as they fled. She later married the young doctor who tended to her. Today, her friend Mavis is coming to visit. Carrie-Louise cannot bake well, so Janice bakes madeleines that Carrie-Louise will pretend she made herself. Janice enjoys Carrie-Louise’s company and respects her story: “Carrie-Louise will always be able to say that she has been the heroine of her own story” (53). Janice regrets that she cannot say the same about herself.

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.