Elizabeth is Missing

Helen and Maud are packing up Maud’s things. Maud isn’t sure why until Helen reminds her that Maud’s moving in with her. Maud insists on keeping a pickle jar filled with bits of trash, which bothers Helen. Maud is worried that Elizabeth won’t know where to find her if Maud moves. Helen tells her that she’ll tell Peter about the move. Maud says that Peter won’t tell his mother and that he may have “[h]idden her away, or worse” (200). Helen is frustrated that Maud is still talking about Elizabeth.

Maud is shocked when Helen mentions that the house has already sold. Helen says they all agreed to it, including Tom, but Maud can’t remember who Tom is. Helen explains that Tom is Maud’s son who only flies in from Germany once a year. The sound of Helen packing a suitcase reminds Maud of Sukey’s suitcase.

Maud remembers Frank waiting for her to come home from school. He told her that he had something he wanted to show her and led her back to his house. Maud was surprised that most of the furniture was gone. He told her he had to sell it. He opened a chest full of Sukey’s clothes and said Maud should have them. Maud asked Frank whether Sukey was dead. Frank said that, after the mad woman broke into the house and scared Sukey, Frank and Sukey decided that Sukey should stay at the Station Hotel for safety. When Frank left the room, Maud found a broken fingernail. Maud observes, “there was something odd about it, something sinister” (209). When Frank returned, she showed him a blue dress, the one Sukey was wearing the night Frank and Sukey met.

Maud is in bed. She’s not sure where she is or when it is. She mistakes Helen for her mother and doesn’t recognize Katy. She’s still thinking about Elizabeth. When she comes across a newspaper, she thinks she needs to wrap apples in newspaper. Unable to find any apples, she wraps up a remote, a pen, and a set of keys.

Maud remembers wrapping apples in newspaper with her mother and Douglas. When Frank held up an article about the new houses built nearby, Maud mentioned that Frank helped people in the new houses fix their gardens. Douglas became suspicious and asked for details.

Maud noticed a headline saying “WOMEN: CONTACT YOUR HUSBANDS” (215) and an article about the Grosvenor Hotel murder. The article urged women who had left their husbands after “hasty war marriages” (215) to contact their husbands to let them know that they were still alive. Maud wondered if Sukey might be one of the women who left their husbands, but she also feared that she could have been a victim of the murderer.

When Helen offers to make her mother breakfast, Maud tells her that the busy cross woman who “works here” (217) doesn’t allow her to eat. Helen realizes that her mother is referring to her. Maud tells Helen that the girl she’s hired doesn’t do any work—but this girl is Katy. Maud asks Helen, “This isn’t my house. Is it?” (219) Helen tells her “This is my house” (219).

Katy leaves the house and Maud follows her. When she sees a bottle of whiskey on the ground, Maud remembers how she would sit in Frank’s car while he drank whiskey and asked her to talk about Sukey: “He said he wanted […] to try and get her straight in his head so he’d never lose her” (221). His favorite story was about the night Sukey came home from the dance and told Maud that she’d met a handsome man who smiled at her and that she knew she was going to marry him.

One night, Douglas confronted Maud, asking why she was spending time with Frank and wearing Sukey’s clothes. Douglas roughly wiped Sukey’s lipstick off Maud’s face and told her, “Stop trying to replace her. You can’t ever replace her” (223).

In the present time, Maud is boarding a bus but can’t find her bus pass. The other passengers are impatient with her. Finally, the bus driver lets her on without her pass. When she sees a bit of newspaper, she’s reminded that people can put notices in the paper.

Maud goes into the newspaper office, takes a picture of a cat from her purse, and tells the receptionist “I’ve lost Elizabeth” (226). The receptionist helps her fill out a form. The questions she asks confuse Maud and eventually she realizes that Maud is looking for a person instead of a cat. She helps her create another notice.

Maud finds herself out on the street where it is raining heavily. Although she’s carrying an umbrella, she can’t figure out what it is. Katy spots her and takes her to a coffee shop. When she spills her drink, Katy gets her an espresso cup to pour it into. Katy reminds her that she should use the ladies’ room. When she gets there, Maud’s own reflection confuses her.

Katy, who Maud thinks of as a young Helen, leads Maud back to the bus stop. On the way, Maud asks Katy where she thinks the best place to plant summer squash is. Katy tells her that she shouldn’t ask the question of Helen because it “winds her up like crazy” (234). Katy helps Maud find her bus pass. Maud asks Katy several times where they are going.

When they arrive at the house, Maud sees that it is new. She doesn’t like new houses, and Elizabeth’s house is new. She tells Katy that she doesn’t live in this house. Katy reminds her that she’s moved in with her and Helen.

Maud tells Katy that she needs to go down to the offices of the local paper to put in a notice for Elizabeth. Katy says Helen wouldn’t like that. When Katy offers her a banana sandwich, Maud remembers that banana sandwiches were a treat when Maud was a girl.

Maud remembers running into Nancy, the woman she’d met at the Station Hotel, while standing on line for bananas. The woman explains that she signed the register for Sukey because Frank asked her to. Nancy tells Maud that she never saw Sukey that night and was surprised Frank didn’t stay with her; Nancy didn’t ask too many questions because Frank intimidated her.