Page 49 of The Housekeeper

“He’s the guy you send tokillthe boogeyman!”

I stopped in front of the door to the home theater, found myself staring at the wide-screen TV mounted on the wall.John Wick!I realized. An old movie starring Keanu Reeves. “Oh, my God!” I said, seeing my father and Elyse sitting side by side in the oversize leather chairs, a large bowl of popcorn on the armrest between them.

Elyse screamed at the sound of my voice and jumped from her seat, upending the bowl of popcorn and sending kernels flying in all directions.

“What the hell?” my father shouted as the sound of gunfire erupted from the screen. He immediately muted the sound and paused the action. “Jodi?! What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“I used my key,” I told him as Elyse turned on the overhead light. “I rang the buzzer but nobody heard me.”

“So, you just walked in?”

“She was obviously worried,” Elyse said, coming to my defense. “Are you all right, dear?”

“I don’t understand,” my father said, not so easily mollified. “What are you doing here?”

“I had a late showing in the area,” I lied, “and I thought I’d drop in, see how Mom was doing.”

“You should have called first.”

“She’s soiled herself,” I said, as if one thought followed naturally on the other.

“Oh, my goodness,” Elyse said quickly. “She was perfectly fine less than an hour ago. I changed her diaper and made sure she was asleep before we came downstairs. I’ll go right up and get her taken care of.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” my father said, his hand reaching for Elyse’s arm to stop her. “This is hardly the first time this has happened. And waking your mother up,” he said to me, “disturbing her now, will only upset her. Best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

I wasn’t sure what alarmed me more, picturing my helpless, once-elegant mother lying in her own waste till morning, or my father comparing her to a sleeping dog.

My face must have registered my horror, for Elyse was quick to respond. “Your father didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” she assured me. “I’ll go upstairs and get her changed. She’s had her sleeping pill, so I’m pretty sure I can do it without waking her up.”

“Thank you,” I whispered as she exited the room.

My father and I stared at each other in silence.

“I guess I should be going,” I said finally.

“Call first next time,” he said instead of goodbye.