'Please, Lynn, I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I'm not trouble.'
'I'm not talking to you.' Lynn didn't care if Leah cried all day. She'd had it with hysterics. Then she girded herself for an attack from Alison— another nutcase. Her life wasn't easy. She didn't look back at her shadow as she entered the house through the street-level entrance.
As soon as she got into the kitchen, where the two little girls were still at the breakfast table, playing with their food and watching TV, Alison let loose. 'Where were you?' she snapped angrily.
'The dogs were crying. I took them out,' Lynn told her.
'For an hour? You took them out for an hour?' Alison's voice was shrill but a little slow.
'I'm sorry. I guess I lost track of the time.' Lynn unhooked the leashes and let the dogs rush their mistress. 'Girls, are you ready to go?' She wanted to act normal for them.
Alison patted the dogs as the children bolted from the table to get their things. No matter what the season, they had a routine. They went to a little day school not far away, and they liked it. If it wasn't raining, Lynn would walk them over. She started to follow them up the stairs to their rooms to get their backpacks. Alison didn't look good, so she didn't want to talk to her, but Alison had other ideas.
'You left the door open. Leah came into the house. That's not acceptable.'
'I'm sorry.'
'She came into this house. You're done.'
'I'm sorry. It won't happen again,' Lynn said.
'You're damn right it won't happen again. This is the end. This is it. You girls are a menace. I've had it with all of you. I don't want any of you in the house again. Take the babies to school and get out of here.' She ranted on until she ran out of speed, then lurched out of the kitchen. Lynn wasn't expected to defend herself, and she certainly wasn't going to plead for her job under these circumstances. The Wilsons needed her more than she needed them. She'd been called a menace before, but it didn't mean a lot. She went up to the fourth floor to get the girls dressed in their little pink jackets.
'Want to say good-bye to Mommy?' she asked.
'Yea, yea, ' Jessica said.
'Yea, yea,' repeated her little sister.
'Okay, let's go find her.'
No one had any doubts about where she was. They went down one flight of stairs to Alison's bedroom. The girls rushed into the room, while Lynn stayed outside the door. They did their good-bye thing for a few moments. Then the girls ran out, and Alison called to her. 'Come in here, Lynn.'
Lynn went into the room and was not surprised to find the usual mess. Alison's clothes and shoes from the night before were scattered about. Andrew's boxer shorts and socks were discarded on the floor beside the bed. There was a empty wineglass on the bedside table, and the pillows and bedding were in disarray.
'Are you okay?' she asked softly.
Alison had the dogs on the bed with her. 'I feel terrible. I have the flu,' she said.
'You want me to get you something at the store?'
'It's too bad, but you've left me no choice in the matter. There's nothing I can do about it.'
'Let's not talk about it now,' Lynn said softly.
'You can't stay here any longer. I put up with it as long as I could. You'll have to go.' Alison's eyes closed, then opened halfway. She was having trouble staying awake.
'Okay,' Lynn said. She could tell her boss was already into it. Alison must have come upstairs to take a pill. Remy had warned Lynn that this was coming, and Leah's walking in this morning gave Alison the excuse she needed. But the Perkins family had gone through so many nannies they had a reputation. Lynn knew that she'd put up with the yelling longer than anyone else, and she'd provided stability for Jessica and Jill. Still, she couldn't help worrying about what Jo Ellen would say.
Alison's hand flopped on her wrist. 'That's it. That's all she wrote.'
'Okay,' Lynn said automatically. She wasn't going to argue with Alison when she was like this. Half the time she didn't know what she was doing anyway. Even if she meant to fire Lynn now, there was a good chance that she wouldn't remember it later. In any case, Lynn was afraid to take her at her word. She hesitated. 'The girls are waiting. Are you going to take them?' she asked.
Alison's eyelids drooped. 'You take them. I'm just going to nap for a few minutes. You can pack up when you get back.'
'Are you sure?' This wasn't right. The last time she'd been fired, the mother had said, 'Get out now.' Rational people didn't fire nannies, then tell them to take their kids to school so they could sleep off their hangover.
Alison didn't answer, though, so Lynn had no choice. She had to take the children to a place where they would be safe. She muttered to herself as she left with them.
Soon she was hurrying down the street, pushing the stroller because Jill still refused to walk. For once, Jessica didn't complain about going too fast. Both girls seemed to sense that something was up and were unusually quiet. Lynn dropped them off with the other kids and didn't stay a second longer than she had to. She knew that she would not be seeing Remy there today. Remy had told her that the boys' grandmother was flying in to be with them. She folded the stroller and left it for the return trip. Then, as she always did after taking the kids to school, she walked up to Barnes & Noble in the Citicorp building and sat in the Starbucks, sipping a latte and turning the pages of her favorite tabloids.
Twenty-six
That morning Alison was in a rage at her husband for leaving her, at Leah for walking in on her, at Lynn for disobeying her. At Maddy for stealing her lover and stupidly getting herself killed. Everything unbearable was happening at the same time. After firing Lynn, though, the tension left her body and she drifted off to her favorite place. Oblivion. She slept with one hand on each dog, snoring gently, and the Chihuahua, with all four paws in the air, snored with her.
For a short while the house was quiet, and peace prevailed. Then from down the stairs came a soft whistle. The poodle lifted its large head, knocking Alison's hand to the sheet. Roxie rolled over and barked, escaping from under the other hand. The contact with their mistress was broken, but Alison slept on.
After a minute, the whistle came again, this time in three short bursts. Fully alert, the dogs turned their eyes and ears toward the door as they waited for the command to come again. Seconds passed and nothing more happened. The deep . silence of the house was broken only by Alison's breathing.
Then it came. Three short whistles. The tense dogs remained where they were until the chain rattled on Floyd's leash. At that moment they knew for sure what was up, and they heard the word that put it all together. 'Walkies!'
Asusual, the call came from downstairs, soft and far away—always a welcome summons. They jumped off the bed to obey and ran down the stairs to the door. It didn't matter to them who took them out. Minutes later a maid came into Alison's room carrying a bucket filled with spray disinfectants on one arm, pushing a vacuum cleaner with her other hand. She was wearing a formal uniform, a gray dress with white collar and cuffs and a white apron over it, and thin rubber gloves. Her hair was hidden under a paisley turban. She didn't look at the sleeping woman on the bed as she went about her business.
She moved quickly, as if this was only one of many rooms she had to do that morning. She gathered up the clothes on the floor and threw them into the hamper in the bathroom, humming as she worked. When the bedroom was all picked up and tidy, she moved to the bathroom, washing out the shower, drying the floor. She put the cosmetics away and lingered over Alison's diamond engagement and wedding rings. After a few seconds, she took off one of the rubber gloves and put them on. She studied the way they looked on her hand, pulled the glove back over them, and went into the bedroom, where she turned on the vacuum cleaner. It roared into life.
Alison's body was still relaxed, but her eyes slowly opened and rolled around at the ceiling above her as if trying to locate the source of the offending noise. She turned her head to the side and her eyes connected with the hose of the vacuum cleaner as it entered her field of vision. Then she was awake and seething. She wanted that noise to stop.
