Early Warning

She had thought of moving away from Des Moines, but if she wanted to stay with Younkers, her only choices were Fort Dodge, Waterloo, Burlington, and Dubuque. She had flirted with moving to Minneapolis and finding a job at Dayton’s. She loved downtown Minneapolis, which had turned into a giant mall, with really good food and great shopping, but each of the three times she’d been there, it had been at least twenty degrees colder and 20 percent darker than Des Moines. Claire did not understand quite how a mere 250 miles could make such a difference, but it seemed to. In other words, she was stuck, and clearly the rest of her family thought so, too, because Andy kept inviting her to New York, Minnie said she could accompany her on her trip to Oaxaca or to Maui, the two places she would be going next, and Lois kept inviting her up to Denby to see Guthrie, who was nineteen months old, and Perky, short for “Franklin Perkins,” four months old. She had seen the babies. The babies were fine, and nothing more than babies, in Claire’s view.

—

THIS LATEST CRISIS WAS not seen by anyone but Janet herself as a crisis. What had happened was, the weather was terrible, her mother missed Emily, and so, during one of those meandering conversations she did not mind having with her mother these days, but which lulled her into relaxing her vigilance, she agreed that they would meet for a week at the Pinehurst Resort. Before they left, Janet had simply imagined herself wandering around in the humid warmth of North Carolina, maybe going over to Southern Pines for a day or so to watch a horse show. Even though Jared had said to her that he was on the verge of a breakthrough that was going to make them a lot of money, Janet had not sensed the danger.

She watched him on the putting green with her father. She went to one little Wednesday horse show and wondered if having a horse would be possible in Iowa. Emily looked at the horses with fear and distaste, standing at a distance, holding Andy’s hand, but Janet got close, stroked equine noses with her fingertips, took in the mesmerizing scent, appreciated the snorts and head tossings, asked mildly intelligent questions of the owners. The closed-in piney warmth of the environment, the ease of the rocking chairs on the veranda, the casual beauty of the place were delightful, but then Jared said that they should buy property — you could buy a square-yard lot on the grounds and get privileges at the club. And they could live in the Research Triangle. Even compared with Iowa City, houses in Raleigh were…

“The Research Triangle is more than an hour from Pinehurst — it would be like working in Iowa City and living in Davenport.”

Jared blinked, informing her that her voice was sharp, then said, “Your dad says Raleigh is a great place to invest, a real center of education and on the East Coast….”

Janet had been hired just the previous fall as an adjunct assistant professor of technical writing. She taught three sections per week, twenty geeks in each section, many of whom did not speak English as a first language, even though they may have grown up in America and had American parents. They all spoke computer as a first language, and as a computer in-law, it was Janet’s job to show them how to reveal their thoughts and ideas to people whose last experience of math concerned the sides of a right triangle. She said, “I like my job.” She had to pretend that she understood almost nothing in order to motivate her students to be ever more clear and simple-minded. They thought she was a dope, but she brandished the weapon of grades. Her office mate in EPB, who taught beginning literature courses, had students who sat pensively outside the office door with their legs stuck out in front of them, waiting to discuss their revelations while reading On the Road and 1984. Janet had noticed at parties that when she said she taught technical writing, whoever she was talking to tended to start looking around the room. She said again, “I really like my job.”

Jared gave her a flat look, a look that informed her that she was sounding enraged or crazy.