The Keepers of the House

by Shirley Ann Grau

and waned and heralded

was that you didn’t know exactly at what point it disappeared. There was nothing you could point to and say: now, there. One day you saw that it was missing and had been missing for a long time. It wasn’t even anything to grieve over, it had been such a long

children now and I think: how long before they slip away, before I am disappointed in them. … But it doesn’t matter. Not really. Not to me. Not any more. I have come to expect no more than this. At least I am not disappointed. …

votes of the respectable well-to-do groups. But he was a stupid pompous fool.

“Honey, you’re perfect for the job, and that’s why I married you.”