Housekeeping

In the weeks following Ruth and Sylvie’s excursion to the lake, the sheriff comes by the house twice. Though the sheriff has many ceremonial duties in town such as leading the parade each year, Ruth knows that Fingerbone can be a dangerous place—there are “pitiable crime[s]” and “appalling accident[s]” all throughout the county. He does not come to the house because of Sylvie’s theft of the boat or Ruth’s truancy, but rather because Sylvie was seen riding the rails with Ruth in tow. The sheriff worries that Sylvie is “making a transient of [Ruth.]”

Ruth suspects that transients are so “terrifying” to the citizens of Fingerbone because they are not all that different from them. Fingerbone is subject to floods and fires, violence and calamity, and “a diaspora threaten[s] always”—this, Ruth believes, is why transients are so frightening to her neighbors. Fingerbone is full of transients and drifters, but most residents attempt to ignore their presence and “consider their histories complete.”

Neighbor women begin bringing casseroles and cakes by the house, as well as knitted socks and caps for Ruth. They ask polite but probing questions about Sylvie’s odd methods of housekeeping, and Ruth finds herself feeling grateful that Lucille, still living with Miss Royce, is “spared these scenes.” The house has fallen into disrepair—the magazines, cans, and paper bags Sylvie hoards have bred mice, and so Sylvie has acquired a cat which has littered twice and whose kittens have begun killing the swallows nesting upstairs. The small corpses of birds are visible throughout the house, and thirteen or fourteen cats and kittens mill about at any time.

Sylvie and Ruth’s neighbors are disturbed but not panicked, and often try to visit with Sylvie and ask her about her life. When one of them asks if she’s made any friends in Fingerbone, Sylvie replies that Ruth is her friend, and in fact “like another sister.” Ruth overhears this and becomes startled when Sylvie adds that Ruth is “[Helen] all over again.” Ruth knows that the women who come by are pious and generous but not tactful, and that though they fear Ruth’s “social graces [are] eroding away” and she will soon “be lost to ordinary society,” they do not know how to help her.

One day, Ruth overhears a neighbor ask Sylvie about whether Ruth is all right leading a life that is not “orderly,” and whether she’s feeling sad. Sylvie answers blithely that Ruth is of course is sad—but that she “should be.” Sylvie insists that “families should stay together,” and that she and Ruth have had “trouble enough” with loss and grief.

The next day, when Ruth comes home from school, she finds that Sylvie has begun cleaning up the living room and emptying it of detritus and debris. There is a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table, and Sylvie is frying up chicken for dinner. Sylvie asks Ruth how school was, and Ruth lies and says it was good—in reality, she is outgrowing her clothes and losing her ability to focus in class. Sylvie asks if Ruth sees Lucille at school, and Ruth says she does—but doesn’t mention that she and Lucille never speak anymore. Sylvie says that after dinner she’ll bring Lucille some chicken and have a visit with her.

It is late when Sylvie returns from Lucille’s. She sits down with Ruth and tells her that “women have been talking to Lucille”—Sylvie implies that the women in town want to enlist Lucille’s help in taking Ruth away from Sylvie’s care. The next morning, Sylvie helps Ruth with her hair for school, insisting she needs to look her best. Ruth realizes how much is at stake, and begins to fear the two of them are “doomed.” Ruth arrives home that evening to find Sylvie in a “swept and catless parlor, speaking softly with the sheriff.” Ruth overhears the sheriff informing Sylvie that there will soon be a hearing, but when he spots Ruth listening, he sends her up to her room. Ruth feels “no curiosity about what [is] destined for [her,] and no doubt.”