The voice belongs to a woman but I can’t tell how old she is.

“Um, yes…I’m here to see Josephine Rose Reyes,” I say slowly.

There’s a silence on the other end.

“Or maybe Josephine Rose Lebold now?”

“Who is this?”

“I’m…” I start to say but then I stop.

I don’t know who I’m talking to.

It might be a housekeeper or a sister or a daughter.

I don’t know how much anyone in her family knows about me and I don’t want to make a relationship between us more difficult to establish.

“It’s personal. I’m just looking for her. Does she live here?”

“Please tell me your name,” the voice says after a long exhalation.

I take a deep breath.

“I’m not going to let you in here without your name,” the woman says.

Now, it’s my turn to exhale.

“My name is Olive Kernes.”

“Hold on a minute,” she says.

A long pause follows and then another.

When I’m about to give up on her, the gate starts to slide open.

I drive up the long driveway leading up to a very modern glass house overlooking a cliff.

I park my car in the driveway and walk up the steps lined by orange trees on both sides.

There is a large double door made of distressed wood the color of caramel. One of them has a wrought iron door knocker.

I’m about to use it when the lock spins.

“That’s simply for decorative purposes,” a woman with her hair in a bun says.

With pursed lips, lined a nude color, a knee-length black dress, and a pristine white apron on top of it, she looks like a housekeeper in the movies.

I had no idea anyone really employed people who looked like this.

“Hi, I’m Olive Kernes,” I introduce myself, extending my hand.

She shakes my hand but I can tell that my gesture throws her off.

It’s like she never expected me to introduce myself to her.

“Please follow me,” the housekeeper says, without giving me her name in response.

I walk through an enormous marble archway and into an equally spacious living room that’s surrounded completely by glass. The views of the valley are expansive and magnificent.

“This way please, ma’am,” the housekeeper says.

I follow her down a large white hallway into another portion of the house.

This looks like something of a sitting room. There are two luxurious couches facing one another and pointed at a large fireplace.

A beautiful wingback chair sits at the head and a large marble coffee table centers the entire room. I look around for a television but I don’t find one.

“Please wait here while I get Mrs. Jemisin.”

The view pulls on me as if it were a gravitational force.