The main industry in Janet’s town, Iola, Kansas, is a chocolate candy factory. There is also a defunct rubber plant.
When Janet sees Louise helped off the plane by an attendant she is shocked. Her daughter is still wearing an eye patch. She has a cane, and her limp is worse. Her T-shirt and sweatpants look like she’s been wearing them for a week. Louise is crabby and teary and can’t even snap her right fingers together anymore.
Janet feels guilty. Her shirt is crisp and clean. Her hair is curled under and held back with a headband. She does a yoga video every day and has an exercise ball. She rarely gets sick. Louise has very little luggage. Janet grips her daughter’s arm and leads her to the car.
People around town have filled Janet’s house with gifts for Louise: a stuffed toy lamb, a framed poem about Jesus, a sign to hang over a doorknob about staying strong. Janet has opened piles of cards, most of which contain pre-printed phrases such as, “We are praying for you,” “Everything happens for a reason,” or “God has a plan.” Louise had announced that she does not believe in God and is irritated by people who do. Janet goes to church, but seeing Louise like this, she has to wonder.
Louise walks past all the gifts and turns on the TV.
Claude calls Louise, but not as often as he should. She can’t hear that well. He keeps having to repeat: “I miss you. I love you. How are you feeling?” Louise says Claude should send her more letters and packages, that he should buy one of those video cameras he can hook up to his computer, that he should always answer his cell phone when she calls, no matter what. She reminds him of the sweet things he used to do for her, like the time in college when she flew out to visit him, and he blindfolded her outside his house, a white duplex on a little street, saying he had a surprise. It had been night, and the air had smelled like a candle. You could hear the ocean and the neighborhood was quiet. He took her by the hand and led her up the stairs, carefully, so she would not fall. There was a trail of rose petals leading to the bedroom. All the lights were off and little votive candles made a heart shape on the floor. A bubble bath was filling up. “It had been like a dream,” she says to Claude now. “It had been what every girl wanted.”
He wonders how she had been seduced by such a romantic cliché. He had seen the whole routine in a movie once and done it for other girls before Louise. He wonders if she’s lost all her irony.
Claude hangs up feeling tired and hungry. Louise sends him a long email that he can hardly read, huge blocks of rageful text with almost every word misspelled—the result of her typing with one hand, and the drowsing effects of the medication, he guesses.
•
The Montecito planning commission is beginning to like him. Its sleek members invite him to play tennis and go on fundraising beach walks. A woman named J’Ayme (i.e., “Jamie”) Brenner, a realtor of beachfront houses for celebrities, asks him to brunch one Sunday. The place usually has an hour-long wait, but of course not for her. Over fruit, coffee, and smoked salmon, J’Ayme tells Claude about a star who is moving to the area and planting an organic herb garden.
“Perfect story material, and you’re the only one who knows!” J’Ayme winks. “I’ll give you all my exclusives.” She leans across the table and asks Claude if she has something in one of her eyes. Her breasts hover over the salmon.
The apartment is now Claude’s. He smokes inside, and leaves spilled corn chips on the floor. He plans to invite some guys from the office over soon to watch a basketball game. They’ll have beers, order a pizza.
Claude goes to Butterfly Beach to write a story on a cancer benefit. Its mascot is a teddy bear. He is surrounded by women in bathing suits with metal belts and leather fringe. A woman in sunglasses and a white one-piece talks to him about the foundation. There is a large hole in the fabric that exposes her stomach. Claude nods and writes in his notebook. Trays of free drinks, called Teddy-tinis, are being passed around by sweaty waiters in tuxedos.
“Cancer does not stop in a financial downturn,” the woman says to Claude.
Claude thinks about touching her stomach. Her skin would be warm.