“Also upstairs, and the other guy downstairs is Bob Polanco. He’s a gardener who moved in three months ago.” She raised an eyebrow. “You’ll be sharing the downstairs bathroom with him, as I said, and I have zero tolerance for bathroom disorder. He knows Polly, too, not sure how, but lots of people know Polly. We don’t see him very much, and when we do see him, he tends to be in the garden.” She turned to leave, adding, “Not like a gnome or anything, he takes care of the garden as part of his rent. If you want to lock your door, I can give you a key, but most people don’t.” Maggie’s brown eyes twinkled and crinkled at the edges. “Welcome to our house. I enjoy new tenants, I’m always around if you need me.”

Laura turned to face the room again. “Thank you so much, Maggie,” she said. “It’s a beautiful room.”

Maggie smiled. “Yes, it’s one of my favorites. Wait till you see the garden, Bob’s a genius, even if he doesn’t say a lot.” She turned to leave. “Do you need to borrow sheets?”

“No, I’m going on a Target run with Polly.” Laura blushed. “I’m really sorry about earlier.”

Maggie laughed. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not. Most people are relatively decent, and many of them are wonderful, I’ve discovered. However, even if you’re an asshole, you’re only here for a month or so.” She stepped into the hall but paused when Laura said her name. “Yes?”

“Did you know,” asked Laura, “that Maggie Morse was an extremely important twentieth-century ornithologist?”

“No,” said Maggie. “Really?”

“Yes,” said Laura. “My parents are bird people, so . . .”

“Huh.” Maggie started to smile, but Laura saw it coming.

“I meant ornithologists, not half-person, half-bird.”

“Disappointing,” said Maggie, closing the door.

•   •   •

A little while later, Polly and Laura stood inside the entrance to Target, each leaning on a cart.

“I don’t need a cart, really,” said Polly, casually scratching the back of one leg with the other foot, “but the thing with Target is there is always something . . . ideal.” Polly quickly wheeled right and left like a cartoon race driver. “Which way? On the right we have women’s clothing, accessories, shoes, and sportswear, straight ahead we have cosmetics, housewares, and—ultimately—the grocery section.” Polly clearly spent a lot of time at Target, and who could blame her?

“I need a little bit of all of it,” said Laura, heading right, “but if we start with clothes, then I’ll have time to come to my senses at the end.”

“It’s the shopping that’s fun, not the spending per se,” agreed Polly. “I see we understand each other.”

FINAL TALLY:

LAURA:

Dressing gown: fluffy.

Slippers: fluffy.

Underwear: not fluffy.

Usual bathroom stuff: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, mascara, lip balm, gray eye pencil, cover stick.

Towels: fluffy.