Page 34 of Maid in America

The voice was familiar, but not Aphrodite’s. Older…

Barrett’s head turned toward it, narrowing his eyes as he spotted Sue Thompson coming from the kitchen with a tiny paper plate full of deviled eggs in her hand. His stomach flipped at the sight of her. He wanted to run, wanted to bolt straight through the wall at the sight of the woman who nearly just got him shit-canned. But he didn’t move, didn’t budge.

Sue’s tight smile met his. “Couldn’t help but overhear you needed some cleaning tips.” She laughed, a kind of laugh that advertised it was a private joke. “Lieutenant.”

After a strange moment of silence, one of the ladies in the living room spoke. “Let’s start with laundry. How do you do your own laundry? What do you do?”

Sue laughed so hard she nearly choked on a boiled egg white.

Barrett’s eyes never left hers, suddenly feeling the intense scrutiny. “I, uh, take it to a laundromat, put the clothes in a washer with some detergent, set it to hot, and push start.”

Sue cackled and stuffed the rest of the egg in her mouth. “Explains alot.”

“Do you separate the lights and darks?”

“Do you know what settings to use?”

“Are you using liquid or powder detergent?”

The questions were firing rapidly from the women.

“No,” Barrett said, “I didn’t know you needed to separate them. I just use normal settings, I guess. And sometimes liquid, sometimes powder. Depends on what’s cheapest at the dollar store.”

“Oh boy,” the woman next to Barrett said with a sigh, stealing another feel of his thigh, “We have alotto teach you.”

Later, in the kitchen’s breakfast nook, Maggie and Barrett sat drinking hot tea. The house was quieter now that the Bible study group had gone home. Barrett scribbled notes down on his pad. Maggie kept tapping at the yellow paper with her French tips.

“… And another thing. Grout can be tricky. I used to clean bathrooms at a local hotel. That was always something people commented on, hownicethe bathrooms always were. I left them spotless.” She smiled with more pride than Barrett thought the comment warranted.

“Take pride in the small things, and God will do the rest.”

Barrett nodded. “What kind of cleaning supplies do you recommend for that? Are there brands you like?”

“Oh yes. I’d be happy to make you a list of everything to use. I’ll have it next time you come. But don’t wear your Sunday best. You’ll be on your knees scrubbing, and what you’re wearing now is very…inappropriate.”

Oh, God… if she only knew.

Maggie smiled and patted Barrett’s hand. “It’ll be nice to have some help for once.”

“The pastor isn’t the cleaning type, I take it?”

Maggie chuckled. “No, not at all.”

Barrett smiled, then swallowed, trying to broach a subject that had been nagging at him for two hours. “What about your daughter?Chastity, is it?”

“Pfft. She’s here in body only. Her mind is somewhere far away since she came back.” Her face grew sullen. “We don’t have the best relationship.”

“Oh,” Barrett said, realizing he had taken a step onto shaky territory.

“She’s an only child, and she’s got the ego and selfishness that goes with it. She’s stubborn as a mule. Gets that from her father. If she doesn’t want to do something, ten men and an act of God couldn’t get her to do it.”

She looked out the window, staring at the retreating clouds as she continued. “There were complications with her delivery when she was born. I knew then she’d be my only child, and because of that, I suppose I coddled her too much. And now she’s sort of… adrift. She’s twenty-five and acts like she’stwelve.”

Maggie rolled her eyes and watched as a whitetail deer skittered over to her bird feeder.

“When I was her age. I had a husbandanda house. Arnold and I were already starting our church, small as it was back then.” She laughed. “His first service was out of a dilapidated mobile home in the poor part of Moran if you can believe it.”

Barrett smiled. “Sure, I can.”

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