Sipsworth

The next day is Sunday. Helen begins to clean up the twigs and leaves that she tracked in on the carpet the night before. Suddenly, she spies the mouse on the patio. It is sitting on its dirty box, standing on its back legs with its paws pressed under its chin. She tries to shoo it away, but it only opens and closes its mouth as if it is talking back to her. Helen thinks that David would have told her to move the box to the nearby hedge, but she decides to postpone the task.

By late afternoon, Helen thinks that “God is everywhere” (53) because the radio and television are broadcasting Sunday church services. She watches one and prays along with the people on TV. After this, she makes a home for the mouse out of a clean pie box and puts some tissue into it. Then, she puts the old, dirty box and the new box next to the hedge. After sprinkling some oats around the new box, she goes to bed. The scream of a cat wakes her up, and she wishes she had never taken the fish tank into the house.