Louise (6 page)

C
laude gets invited to a party at J'Ayme Brenner's house. The celebrity realtor says she has more gossip that could turn into news for Claude. The house is a wood-shingle mansion with an infinity pool. The kitchen is a rich person's idea of a pioneer cabin. J'Ayme makes Claude a plate of cheese and olives and watches him eat it. His boss is out by the pool, surrounded by leggy women who are all laughing. A man in white linen comes up and shakes Claude's hand, saying he liked Claude's article on the new iced-coffee cart downtown. J'Ayme nudges him.

Claude is feeling pretty good.

He guesses J'Ayme is in her late forties. She dresses much younger. Her hair is long and tiger-striped. Her nails, coppery. Shoes too.

J'Ayme asks him about Louise. Claude tells her everything, he can't help himself. They go to her computer, and Claude shows J'Ayme some of Louise's craziest emails. There are too many to read. He replays some of Louise's voicemails, and J'Ayme's eyebrows raise at the swearing and crying. He tells himself it is okay to share his frustrations with someone. It's not like Louise is keeping her complaints to herself.

He turns circles in J'Ayme's computer chair. “I'm no hero. I'm helping her as much as I can.”

“Sounds like she wants you to have no life because hers is gone, too,” J'Ayme says.

“Well, I wouldn't say
it's gone
—” Claude says. “I just don't want to feel like the bad guy anymore.”

J'Ayme stands behind Claude with her hands on his shoulders. “You have to look out for yourself,” she says.

Claude thinks about kissing J'Ayme. He knows that he could. But he wants to continue feeling like someone doing the right thing. He wants to keep conducting himself in a way that is superior to Louise. She could be handling things a little better, he thinks.

J'Ayme wheels him around to face her.

J
anet gets tired of explaining to people what “cavernous angioma” means. People come at her from nowhere, asking questions, breathing on her in narrow office hallways and at the grocery store, where she is aching from cold in the dairy section, just wanting a jug of milk. When she is in a hurry, she calls it a stroke. This is not a lie, exactly. Both conditions involve the brain, blood, damage, and doctors. Other times at church potlucks she says that Louise has a blood clot that's getting bigger and has to be removed. People know what a blood clot is because the elderly get them all the time, especially in their legs. Occasionally someone will ask if Louise has had an aneurysm, which is just about impossible because those are typically deadly, but Janet will just say yes, an aneurysm, that's right.

Other mothers complain about their in-laws. They show off pictures of their grandchildren. Janet cannot imagine when she will be able to do that.