My Mother-in-Law Left a Blue Notebook in Our Hallway Closet—After My Son Was Born, I Finally Learned What She Had Been Recording Inside It

Fifty-eight.

Nervous about almost everything.

Terrified of gossip.

She smelled faintly of peppermint because she thought lozenges hid cigarette smoke.

“I saw Eleanor leaving.”

“So?”

“She sat near Mrs.

Gable’s driveway afterward.”