BooksBarbecue
Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

“Oh my god. She was like movie-star pretty. And no one ever really knew what happened.” Maggie tapped her finger to her cheek. “There’s a story there.”

Thankfully, Beth moved away from the tarts. “Look at you, putting on your investigative reporter hat.”

My customer whipped out her cash, started to count it, muttering to herself. “Here you go.” She jammed several bills at me.

I handed her a bag, finally free, and turned to them. “Who are you two gossiping about?”

“One of the old Ivy Hive,” Maggie said, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. Her eyes were glittering. “Sorry, Five. Before they ran her out of town.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Ran her out of town? Wow, that’s dramatic. You make them sound like the mafia.”

“There was definitely some sort of scandal,” Maggie insisted. “She did something they wouldn’t forgive.”

“Maybe she slept with one of their husbands.” Beth wiped powdered sugar off her blouse. “Every time I tried to ask Alice about it, she sort of blew me off.”

“Or she just got a job elsewhere and the family moved away.” I shrugged.

Beth stared at me funny. “That woman? She never worked a real job a day in her life. She was some sort of ar-teest, or fancied herself as such.”

“Yep,” Maggie agreed. “I’m not trying to be a bitch or anything, but those women are cold. One day they were all tight, like sorority sisters, and then the next...boom! She was completely cut out.”

HALLOWEEN

Darkness comes fast.

And with it, the mothers light their jack-o’-lanterns, the candles baking the insides of the gourds.

The party is a raging success, like always.

Here come the kiddos—see them? Hear them? The small ones first, toddlers begging for sweets they’ll never eat. The mothers perch on their porch steps with bags of candy or stand at the end of their sidewalks. The children come in droves, eager little beasts with pillowcases and recyclable grocery bags. More more more, they chant. Trick-or-treat trick-or-treat trick-or-treat.

The fathers, who are largely invisible in this story, mutter at the edges, already three or four beers in, trading stories about how when they were kids they used to have to sing songs or tell jokes or dance for their candy. They exaggerate and they burp and the mothers overhear and are secretly disgusted by them.

The kids come and come, a seemingly never-ending trail. But our five mothers—the ones who deserve focus tonight, the ones who are to blame for what is to transpire—will not run out of candy. They have unopened bags behind them on their porches—Mounds and KitKats and Hershey bars and mini bags of Skittles and plastic eyeball rings and glow-in-the-dark necklaces—and they will continue to refill.