A Spool of Blue Thread

Abby begins exhibiting peculiar behavior: “On the very first day of 2012, Abby began disappearing” (75). Stem picks up his three boys and can’t find Abby. Neither Red (who’s now hard of hearing) nor the boys know where she is. Red mentions an incident Abby had while driving one of the boys (Petey) and thinks they should sell her car. Though the family searches everywhere, they later find her sitting on her bed. She apologizes for not hearing them, but something seems off. “There was something contrived and stagey in her posture, as if she had hastily scrambled into place when she heard their steps on the stairs” (81). As time progresses, Abby’s demeanor changes as well. She takes on a fretful, forgetful expression, and she even throws out her idea box, once a prized object, without remorse. She also begins calling their dog, Brenda, by their dead dog’s name: Clarence. Though 72, her family reasons that she can’t have Alzheimer’s.

Red has a heart attack in May. When his children ask him to retire, he refuses. He does begin wearing hearing aids, though he hates them to the point of never using them. Red starts slacking off with the house’s upkeep. Though Red is 74, he’s always taken extreme pride in the house. The children think Abby and Red shouldn’t live alone, so they hold a family meeting (minus Denny). The possibility of a retirement community is brought up, but Abby and Red take offense. They can’t dream of living in a planned community, and they don’t want to sell their house. Though their kids promise to look after it, Red admonishes them: “‘Houses need humans,’ Red said, ‘You all should know that”’ (92). A live-in maid, Mrs. Gilbert, is hired briefly, but when she and Abby don’t get along, she’s let go.

Stem and his wife Nora move into the house on Bouton Road after Abby’s discovered wandering the street aimlessly in her robe without Red noticing. In time, Nora takes command of daily life, including meals. She’s graceful without trying and is described as “a beautiful woman who didn’t know she was beautiful” (97). Oddly (to Abby), she calls Stem by his real name: Douglas. When the family (minus Denny) has dinner one night, Denny calls. He’s upset that no one asked him to move in, which everyone finds both amusing and annoying. He’ll arrive home later that night, and he asks for a ride. He ends the call by saying that Stem isn’t technically a Whitshank.

Stem isn’t in fact a blood relative. His father, a man named Lawrence O’Brien, or Lonesome, used to work for Red. Because Lonesome’s wife left him, he brings Douglas, a small, silent child, to work every day. One day, Lonesome’s appendix ruptures and he’s hospitalized, leaving Red with Douglas. Abby brings Douglas home until Lonesome recovers. Red later discovers that Lonesome has died from peritonitis. He and Abby discuss what to do with Douglas. Abby suggests keeping him, though Red thinks she’s being foolish. She stands her ground rather dramatically, and she tells Red as her shocked kids listen that she can’t bear to think of Douglas’s delicate stem of a neck being thrown to the wolves.

Though the Whitshanks neither adopt Douglas nor contact Social Services, they “look after” him, telling neighbors that they’re simply waiting for his mother to arrive. In time, the neighborhood views him as a Whitshank and he forgets about his father. He does well in school, and after graduating begins working with Red. He’s the child most like Red, which annoys Denny. Denny even asked Abby once if she ever thought about asking her own kids’ permission before “adopting” Stem.