Alice was the recipient of one very cold shoulder at breakfast the next morning. Charlie wasn’t giving her the full-on silent treatment, but close: single-word answers and minimal eye contact, all the while lavishing attention on everyone else at the table to really drive the point home. Not a big believer in the subtle approach, her sister. Alice guessed that Charlie was mad because she didn’t stick up for Jude at dinner last night with Maggie. The truth was, Alice thought she was being nice by keeping her mouth shut, that she was doing Charlie a favor. She didn’t run Jude down, which was what she’d wanted to do, and which is what she would’ve done if she’d actually answered. No, she’d stayed discreetly silent. Well, that’s what she got for being considerate.

“Hey, mom,” Alice said, “are you going into town today?”

Her mom put down her slice of cantaloupe, touched her fingertips to her napkin. “Why? What do you need?”

“Nothing, really. I was just thinking of going to the bookstore. I finished The Omnivore’s Dilemma yesterday.”

“Is that what you were reading for school?”

“No. For pleasure.”

Charlie snorted at that one, momentarily forgetting to feign deafness anytime Alice spoke.

Ignoring her sister, Alice said, “My assigned reading is The Magus, which I saw on one of the shelves in the library. So there’s no need for me to pick up that. Anyway, I’m on kind of a nonfiction kick these days.”

“I have no plans to go into town today,” Maggie said. “But you know who does?”

Alice felt a flicker of dread as she lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

Richard looked at her over the top of his paper. “I was planning on driving in at around eleven thirty, picking up the jacket they’re altering for me at the tailor’s. I can wait a little if you won’t be ready by then.”

“She’ll be ready,” Maggie said. “Won’t you, sweetheart?””

If Richard’s eyes weren’t right on her face at that moment, Alice would have glared at her mother. As it was, she didn’t dare. Just nodded, went back to her Grape-Nuts.

• • •

Alice lingered around the dining room after everyone else had wandered off. She helped Luz clear the table. Luz was a short woman in her mid-sixties. She was almost perfectly round, as wide as she was tall, with a cap of spiky salt-and-pepper hair and a cheerful, grandmotherly face. She hummed while she worked and liked to talk about her grandkids.

As Luz stood over the kitchen garbage can, a stack of dirty dishes and bowls at her elbow, Alice leaned against the counter. With as much casualness as she could muster, she said, “So how long have you worked for my stepdad, Luz? A long time?”