Sunday Is Ours

Lucy made the first pancake too small to judge. It landed in the middle of the pan like a cautious coin, puffed at one edge and browned before she could get the spatula under it. She put it on a plate and cut it into three pieces. “We need a test,” she said. “No compliments …

Lucy put the square-wheeled bicycle card in her pocket before leaving for the park cafe. She had slept badly and did not want to tell Nora why. At breakfast she ate half a piece of toast and asked whether the cafe still sold the lemon cakes that came wrapped in paper. Nora said she thought …

Nora bought the transit-map print on Wednesday afternoon. She had gone back to the riverside market alone after sleeping off Tuesday’s shift and discovered the artist was packing up early because rain was coming. The print was still there. Nora liked the colors even in a gray light, and she bought it without asking the …

Paul’s last box had lived under the hall table for nine weeks. It held a desk lamp, a pair of winter gloves, three folders of tax papers and a small wooden game board with one corner repaired in a way that made the repair more visible than the break. Nora had dusted around it so …

Lucy asked for the second call on Saturday evening, after she came home from the game shop with Paul carrying a small box of cards neither of them quite understood. Their first Saturday plan had remained tentative around Paul’s shifts, and work had made him postpone the confirmed Sunday visit in May. This time he …

Nora slept through two calls from an unknown number on Thursday morning. She had come off Wednesday night’s shift at six, eaten toast standing at the sink, and gone to bed with the phone facedown. When she woke at noon, neither caller had left a message. The personnel office’s number was saved in her contacts. …

Sam called Friday afternoon while Nora was standing in the grocery aisle choosing between two brands of noodles Lucy had declared identical until Nora bought the wrong one. She put both packets in her cart and answered. “Ben has the inspection time,” Sam said. “Five to eight Saturday. They need him there for the wiring …

Lucy moved the kitchen laptop three inches to the left at three fifty-two. The refrigerator disappeared from the camera frame; the plain wall took its place. She moved it back one inch. Now the top of the fruit bowl showed, which she said made the house look as if people actually lived there. Nora held …

Edith called at ten on Sunday morning from the market. Nora could hear a vendor describing peaches as if he had invented them. “I’ve made it here by myself,” Edith said. “The shuttle came early. I had to make the driver wait while I found my purse, and he behaved like a civilized person.” “You …

Nora put on the green blouse after sleeping until noon on Friday. The small burn by the collar was still visible if she tilted her head, but Lucy had been right: with the top button open, it looked like a flaw in the fabric rather than evidence of an iron left too long in one …