The Stepford Wives

"Okay. Kim! You're getting water all over the-"

Walter wasn't particularly surprised to hear about the change in Charmaine. "Ed must have laid the law down to her," he said, turning a fork of spaghetti against his spoon. "I don't think he makes enough money for that kind of a setup. A maid must be at least a hundred a week these days.

"But her whole attitude's changed," Joa

"Do you know what Jeremy's allowance is?" Pete said.

"He's two years older than you are," Walter said.

"THIS IS GOING TO SOUND crazy, but I want you to listen to me without laughing, because either I'm right or I'm going off my rocker and need sympathy." Bobbie picked at the bun of her cheeseburger.

Joa

They were at the McDonald's on Eastbridge Road, eating in the car.

Bobbie took a small bite of her cheeseburger, and chewed and swallowed.

"There was a thing in Time a few weeks ago," she said. "I looked for it but I must have thrown the issue out." She looked at Joa

"I think I remember," Joa

"Joa

"What do You mean?" Joa

"Just think for a minute," Bobbie said. She fisted her free hand and stuck out its pinky. "Charmaine's changed and become a hausfrau," she said.

She stuck out her ring finger. "The woman you spoke to, the one who was president of the club; she changed, didn't she, from what she must have been before?"

Joa

Bobbie's next finger flicked out. "The woman Charmaine played te

Joa

Bobbie nodded. "Either leaking from one of those plants, or just around, like in El Paso or wherever." She took her coffee from the dashboard. "It has to be," she said. "It can't be a coincidence that Stepford women are all the way they are. And some of the ones we spoke to must have belonged to that club. A few years ago they were applauding Betty Friedan, and look at them now. They've changed too."

Joa

"There's something," Bobbie said. "In the ground, in the water, in the air-I don't know. It makes women interested in housekeeping and nothing else but. Who knows what chemicals can do? Nobel-prize wi

"I sure have," Joa

"I do, for God's sake," Bobbie said. She put her coffee on the dashboard and took French fries from the bag. "Well?" she said.

"I suppose it's-possible," Joa

"No more fantastic than El Paso," Bobbie said.

"More," Joa

"I haven't mentioned it to him yet. I thought I'd try it out on you first."

Joa

Bobbie shook her head. "Mm-mmn," she said. "I worked for a government agency; forget it. I think the thing to do is move out. Then futz around with letters."

Joa

"I mean it," Bobbie said. "Anything that can make a hausfrau out of Charmaine isn't going to have any special trouble with me. Or with you."

"Oh come on," Joa

"There's something here, Joa

"All right, quiet down, I can hear."

Bobbie took a large-mouthed bite of her cheeseburger. Joa

"Even if I'm wrong," Bobbie said with her mouth full, "even if there's no chemical doing anything"-she swallowed-"is this where you really want to live? We've each got one friend now, you after two months, me after three.

Is that your idea of the ideal community? I went into Norwood to get my hair done for your party; I saw a dozen women who were rushed and sloppy and irritated and alive; I wanted to hug every one of them!"

"Find friends in Norwood," Joa

"You're so damn independent!" Bobbie took her coffee from the dashboard.

"I'm asking Dave to move," she said. "We'll sell here and buy in Norwood or Eastbridge; all it'll mean is some headaches and bother and the moving costs -for which, if he insists, I'll hock the rock."

"Do you think he'll agree?"

"He damn well better had, or his life is going to get mighty miserable.

I wanted to buy in Norwood all along; too many WASPs, he said. Well I'd rather get stung by WASPs than poisoned by whatever's working around here. So you're going to be down to no friends at all in a little while-unless you speak to Walter."

"About moving?"

Bobbie nodded. Looking at Joa

Joa

"Why not? He wants you to be happy, doesn't he?"

"I'm not sure that I'm not. And I just finished the darkroom."

"Okay," Bobbie said, "stick around. Turn into your nextdoor neighbor."

"Bobbie, it can't be a chemical. I mean it could, but I honestly don't believe it. Honestly."

They talked about it while they finished eating, and then they drove up Eastbridge Road and turned onto Route Nine. They passed the shopping mall and the antique stores, and came to the industrial plants.

"Poisoner's Row," Bobbie said.

Joa

"Nerve-gas research, I'll bet you five bucks."

"In a populated area?"

"Why not? With that gang in Washington?"

"Oh come on, Bobbie!"

WALTER SAW SOMETHING WAS bothering her and asked her about it. She said, "You've got the Koblenz agreement to do," but he said, "I've got all weekend. Come on, what is it?"

So while she scraped the dishes and put them in the washer, she told him about Bobbie's wanting to move, and her " El Paso " theory.

"That sounds pretty far-fetched to me," he said.

"To me too," she said. "But women do seem to change around here, and what they change into is pretty damn dull. If Bobbie moves, and if Charmaine doesn't come back to her old self, which at least was-"