from Other People We Married by Emma Straub
“Did you hire a psychic?”
When Matt realizes that his wife Claire has hired a woman who claims to be an animal psychic, he’s less than pleased at how she spends her days and their money. Sebastian their beloved house cat has gone Roanoke. In its place is a small child, the couples first. There is nothing that can prepare you for parenthood, no matter what anyone tells you. Oddly, Claire has a housekeeper, which affords her the time run to Bloomingdales for make-up tests, and allows her private moments to pour her tears on the floor of a cab.
Motherhood is no joke, and watching a woman evaporate before your eyes, especially when you come home from work, and find that woman going up in steam, and holding the thing that means the world to you, is a dish typically served hot.
Matt must rob banks, because Claire isn’t wanting for anything, and comfortable in her gilded cage, but she’s going crazy. This cat psychic is preying on her, and it’s obvious to everyone except Claire. What Straub does here is pure magic, distilled in a tight space, and Cormac McCarthy can pick his shade of green. It is very hard not to get pulled in by this writing.
