The Keeper of Stories

Janice works as a self-employed house cleaner. She takes the city bus to travel between clients. On the Monday when the narrative begins, she cleans Geordie’s house in the morning and Fiona’s in the afternoon. Janice dwells on her clients’ stories as she cleans. Geordie has a big personality and is known for his opera career. As a young man, Geordie fell in love with the opera La Boheme so completely that he left his home in Newcastle and walked to London to find more opera. He took a job as a props boy and later launched his career as a famous tenor. Janice thinks that he is a caring man; he insists that she take care of her cold as she leaves.

Janice stops at the public library between appointments. A young man on the steps speaks of library ghosts to a young woman. Janice wishes that she could listen in and formulate a story about this couple, but she has only a short time to rest, read, and eat her lunch. Reading helps balance her worries about climate and political matters as well as social and health issues.

Leaving the library, Janice sees her husband, Mike, across the street. A pang of worry strikes, as he should be at work. However, this is a pang that she is used to since he is always on her worry list.

Janice is relieved that no one is home at her last house of the day since Fiona’s presence often makes her sad. Fiona’s husband recently died, prompting Fiona’s career switch from accountant to undertaker and funeral director. She has a preteen son, Adam. Fiona replaced a model train set in her home’s loft with a dollhouse, and she works on expanding it as a hobby. The dollhouse has a home business and an accompanying tiny sign for “Jedidiah Jury, Undertaker.”

Janice uses a mini feather duster to clean the dollhouse’s surfaces. She would love for the dollhouse to reflect a happy ending for Fiona instead of more coffins and death, but she wonders if Fiona’s story is destined to be dark. That ominous thought prompts Janice to think of her childhood, where “she has no wish to be” (17).

Janice waits for the bus to go home. She thought that the handsome morning driver was on the edge of saying something to her earlier, but the afternoon run has a different driver. Janice listens to bus passengers to try to glean their stories. She then watches a young woman listening to music and dancing very subtly. Janice recalls how she used to love dancing and the power it caused her to feel: “When she dances she is a lioness” (21).

As Janice approaches the small “semi” (a semi-detached house that shares one wall with a neighbor) where she and Mike live, she reflects on the willpower she must summon to enter. While Mike naps, she prepares the evening meal: “She knows the first thing he will say when he wakes is, ‘What’s for dinner?’ He doesn’t ask this in a nagging or demanding voice, but in a jolly tone that suggests they are all in it together. She is no longer fooled” (21).

Mike comments on how great it is that she likes her cleaning jobs and then mentions that he likely will not be at his job much longer. Mike has had 28 jobs in 30 years. Janice used to think that he had terrible luck with employers, but she has since realized that it is Mike’s behavior that prompts each firing and resignation; he tends to pick apart others’ work habits and offer constant advice to others, including supervisors.

He leaves dinner clean-up to Janice, claiming that he must think about his job situation. Janice reflects on their 28-year-old son, Simon, whom Mike insisted they send to private school and who has drifted away since he became an adult. Janice rarely sees him, though Simon sends cards for Christmas.

In a brief chapter cap, the viewpoint shifts to Mr. Mukherjee, a neighbor, who watches through the window as Janice dances around her kitchen.

Janice likes all her cleaning clients except for “Mrs. YeahYeahYeah” and “Mr. NoNoNotNow,” names that represent the couple’s curt words to her. They have no children, no kindness, and no story. Janice finds it rude that she is expected to drink cheap instant coffee even though the couple owns an expensive Italian coffee machine. Janice only cleans there for the dog, a fox terrier named Decius whom she simply loves.

Mrs. YeahYeahYeah asks Janice to start cleaning for her mother-in-law, whose clutter has grown hazardous. Janice attempts to refuse, but the woman insists that she try it lest the elderly woman be sent to an elder care facility. Janice gives in.

Janice has been cleaning for Mrs. YeahYeahYeah and Mr. NoNoNotNow for four years. Walking Decius is the only part of this job that she enjoys; she walks him on weekends and non-cleaning days too. Today, Janice has a gift for Fiona, who lives across the fields from Mrs. YeahYeahYeah, so Janice takes Decius there, using her key to enter. The gift is a tiny model birthday cake for the dollhouse.

Janice sees that Fiona wired some of the house with real electric lights, but they spark and go out as soon as she flips the switch. While studying the problem, she realizes that Adam is home and talking to Decius. Janice apologizes for being there with a dog, but Adam loves Decius immediately. Janice asks to borrow Adam’s soldering iron to repair the dollhouse wire connections. She fixes the switch, reflecting that Adam’s father died by suicide. She invites Adam to help her walk Decius occasionally, and Adam enthusiastically accepts.

Upon meeting Mrs. YeahYeahYeah’s mother-in-law, Janice tries to hide her shock at the woman’s rudeness—she spits on the walk as Janice approaches and insists that she never asked for help. Janice is struck by the location of the house, “built into the wall of one of Cambridge’s oldest colleges” with a view of the quadrangle from the front window (42). The interior is a clutter of mementos, keepsakes, books, and other items.

Janice is ready to leave when the woman asks Janice, “So, what’s your story?” (44). Janice tries to say that she is very boring, but the old woman insists that she must have a story; everyone does. Unwilling to share hers, Janice changes the subject. The woman, explaining why she lives there, mentions that her husband was once a Master at the college. Now the college wants the house to repurpose it.

Janice reveals that the woman’s son has a dog named Decius, which the woman finds hilarious because Mr. NoNoNotNow’s name is Tiberius (her husband loved Roman history). When the woman asks Janice’s favorite book, Janice replies with Vanity Fair, and the woman approves: “Good choice, lots of stories within stories” (47). When the woman wants to know if Janice thinks of herself as a Becky Sharp or an Amelia (aggressive and meek Vanity Fair characters, respectively), Janice feels uncomfortable. She escapes as the woman concocts a story about another woman for whom she borrows the name Becky Sharp. The woman shuts the door without agreeing to terms.