A Simple Favor

“Emily laughed. ‘Sweet Stephanie. You’d be amazed by what people will do. Things they’d never admit to anyone—not even to themselves.’ I wanted to say that I wasn’t as sweet as she thought. I’d done some bad things too.”

Stephanie and Emily have just finished watching Strangers on a Train, Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name. When Stephanie wonders if people would really commit murder for someone else, this is Emily’s response. Emily, however, doesn’t know Stephanie’s own history, which will be revealed during the novel, and which she alludes to here. Stephanie also touches on the theme of Living a Double Life here, but because this is posted to her blog, she doesn’t go into further detail.

“I said, ‘Of course. I’m totally happy to do you a favor.’ A simple favor. The sort of simple favor we moms do for each other all the time.”

Although Stephanie wonders what could constitute an emergency at Emily’s job with a fashion designer, she agrees to watch Nicky after school one day. Throughout the novel, her allegiance to Emily is reinforced by their common status as mothers and Stephanie’s firm belief that mothers should help each other. This passage also introduces the title of the novel though the idea of a “simple favor” will shift as the narrative continues.

“Many of us have shared on this blog about how hard it is for moms to feel they’ve got a grip on reality—what day it is, what’s expected of us, what someone said or didn’t. Nothing is easier than convincing a mom that something’s her fault. Even when it isn’t. Especially when it isn’t.”

One of the reasons Stephanie started her blog was the isolation and the need for community she felt as a mother. In her frequent appeals to the common experiences of mothers, she also illustrates her own state of mind. Stephanie is very aware of Societal Expectations of Motherhood, which is one of the reasons that she continues to help Emily throughout the novel.

“But Emily made a point of showing me the black-and-white photo of the two girls in their party dresses and hair bands, so oddly beautiful and so haunting, half smiling at some secret knowledge. Emily said, ‘That photo cost more, and I love it more, than anything in the house. If I told you how we got it, our friend in the auction house would have to kill me. Which twin do you think is the dominant one?”

Emily gives Stephanie an early clue as to her own history and background with the display of this photograph, which is later revealed to be by real-life photographer Diane Arbus. Arbus’s photo of twin sisters is one of her most famous works, and Emily is not exaggerating about what it would cost to own a copy. Emily’s question of which is the dominant twin foreshadows the struggle, later in the novel, between her and her sister, Eve, in which Emily proves to dominate.

“Had my mother suspected the truth? Was that why she talked about everyone having secrets? I could never make myself ask, even—especially—after Chris entered our lives.”

Stephanie has a conflicted relationship with her mother, which is complicated by the discovery of her father’s other family and son, Chris. From the time Stephanie was very young, her mother emphasized the power of secrets and the impossibility of ever knowing everyone else. This lesson permeates Stephanie’s understanding of the world and relationships, even into her adult life.

“Sean and I are a team. Nicky is our project. We have long talks when Sean brings Nicky to play with Miles, and when we meet outside school in the afternoon. I give Sean support and encouragement for insisting that the police keep searching for Emily.”

On her blog, Stephanie reports on her interactions with Sean and Nicky after Emily’s disappearance. Through these posts, her increasing involvement with Sean is clear, but she presents it as strictly revolving around Nicky’s well-being. In reality, Stephanie is attracted to Sean and soon they begin a relationship, reinforcing the theme of Living a Double Life.

“I guess that’s why I keep thinking about the day Chris showed up at my mom’s, why being around Sean reminds me of the day my half-brother entered my life. There’s that same jolt of attraction to someone inappropriate. Someone very inappropriate. That tingle of pure excitement.”

Stephanie’s attraction to Sean is complicated by how “inappropriate” it is because he is her missing best friend’s husband. However, inappropriate relationships excite Stephanie. Her sexual relationship with her half-brother, Chris, explores the attraction of that inappropriate connection and illustrates her willingness to act on the attraction.

“But now it makes me wonder. Was I already misunderstanding her, hearing her wrong? Was she lying about the umbrella? But why would she tell a lie that would be exposed the minute I walked in the door?”

Stephanie has caught Emily in a small lie. Emily gives her an umbrella, telling her it was one of a kind, but Stephanie sees a stand full of similar umbrellas at Emily’s house. Characteristically, Stephanie first wonders if it is a misunderstanding, which she assumes to be her fault, a result of frequently questioning herself due to the Societal Expectations of Mothers. However, this incident should have been a clue for Stephanie that Emily is not truthful with her, something that she missed due to her quickness to blame herself.

“I’ve been eating red meat for the first time since Chris and Davis died. I’m amazed (and a little disappointed in myself) by how much I still love that rich, salty, juicy, bloody taste. And I’ve started to associate that delicious taste with being around Sean. I feel almost as if we’re vampires on a sexy TV series where the undead with their fangs and perfect bodies zoom across the screen to have sex. I’d stopped eating meat for personal and ethical reasons, but I can hardly expect to get credit for being ethical about animals when I’m being so unethical about humans: wanting to sleep with the husband of my best friend.”

In the past, Stephanie has reported on her blog she and Miles are vegetarians. However, upon her involvement with Sean, she has begun eating meat again, and here she describes it as a visceral experience that parallels her attraction to Sean. To Stephanie, both behaviors are more exciting and more attractive because of their inappropriateness, developing the theme of The Allure of What’s Forbidden.

“‘It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was sure she was still alive. I was positive she was going to come home.’ What did he mean? How was it supposed to have happened? What did he know that he wasn’t saying? Or did he just mean that Emily wasn’t supposed to die so tragically, so young?”

Stephanie is reflecting on Sean’s reaction to the discovery of a body that authorities believe is Emily’s. His words strike her as strange, but later in the narrative, they make sense upon the discovery that Sean and Emily had a plan to fake her death. Again, as with so many other hints along the way, Stephanie is observant enough to notice the odd comment, but not wary enough to see it as suspicious.

“I knew that it was a suicide note or that someone might see it that way. I burned it in the bathroom sink. I didn’t want anyone thinking that Davis had killed himself. On a practical level, we had insurance to consider. It would affect how Miles and I lived from then on. Miles didn’t need to know. Davis’s mom didn’t need to know. I didn’t want or need anyone to know.”

Stephanie reveals that after his death she discovered a message from Davis that indicates he knew about the relationship between Stephanie and Chris and had intentionally killed himself and Chris in the car accident. Although Stephanie is devastated by the accident, she separates her thoughts from her grief by listing the reasons she immediately destroyed the evidence. Once again, Stephanie shows that she is capable of keeping secrets to protect herself and Miles. This act of potential insurance fraud also echoes the larger insurance fraud perpetrated by Emily and Sean.

“‘When I was putting Nicky to bed, he told me that he saw Emily outside the school yard.’ Sean sat up very straight. He stared at me. I saw so many warring emotions in his eyes: shock, disbelief, hope, fear, relief.”

Nicky has told Stephanie that he saw Emily, and while she brushes it off as wishful thinking, Sean has a much different reaction. Although neither she nor the reader can understand his reaction at the time, it makes sense later as his and Emily’s duplicity comes to light. However, Stephanie again misses a clue here as she views Sean’s reaction—he seems to believe Nicky has seen Emily, which should indicate to Stephanie that a deeper plot is at work.

“When the boys were away at school and Sean was in the city, I began to play a game. I would look for, and find, one interesting thing about Emily each day. One object that would provide a clue about who she really was. Then I would make myself stop.”

As Stephanie begins to settle into her life with Sean, she explores Emily’s home. She becomes an investigator, curious about Emily’s life and secrets in a new way. The more she learns, the more the mystery deepens, and soon she will take this investigation even further by visiting Emily’s mother.

“Peeping. Something about the word makes me almost physically sick, and at the same time I adore it. Peeping. The word gives me a feeling that’s like the tingly nausea jitters you get just before the roller coaster drops. Some people will do anything for that feeling. And, as the song goes, God, I know I’m one.”

The opening lines of Part 2 are shocking because they come from Emily’s perspective and confirm that she is very much alive. Until this point, the reader only knows Emily from Stephanie’s perspective, and her point of view reveals her true character. In addition, it shows the connection between Stephanie and Emily, both of whom respond to The Allure of What’s Forbidden.

“I told him: I will not be dead. No matter what you hear. I will not be dead. It was like a warning in a fairy tale. Don’t turn around and look back at me on our way out of hell. And once again, the hero blew it.”

Emily’s annoyance with Sean for believing she is actually dead shows that he was in on her plan. However, this quote also shows her disdain for him and his inability to follow the plan. She alludes to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, in which Orpheus turns back to look at Eurydice as they are leaving the underworld (after being explicitly told not to by Hades), causing her to disappear.

“I was looking for Captain Mom. Captain Mom was what Sean and I called the ones with the backpacks and the front packs and harnesses and strollers, the portable cribs and high chairs, the baby harnesses strapped to their bodies, the quilted jackets like space suits in which they could rocket to Mars, if they had to. With Baby all warm and safe.”

Emily reveals that she had chosen to be friends with Stephanie because she was completely absorbed in her identity as a mother. She was looking for someone who could not only serve as a witness, as her best friend, but also take care of Nicky during the time she was separated from him. She shows her disdain of Stephanie, and mothers like her, with the moniker Captain Mom, and emphasizes the shared perspective of herself and Sean when it comes to these women.

“At first I thought that Stephanie’s blog was just harmless, tree-hugging bullshit. But after I got to know her, it was interesting to observe the gap between the woman she pretended to be in her blog, and the person she was. […] I chose to see what I wanted to see. I should have taken her lies as a warning.”

Early on in their relationship, Emily notices how Stephanie inhabits different personas online and in real life. She has chosen Stephanie to serve as her best friend and stand-in with Nicky without considering the possibility that her friend would get involved with Sean as well. She realizes later that she underestimated Stephanie, who is Living a Double Life between her blog and reality.

“I lay there thinking of how to let Emily know that I knew. After a while it came to me. Emily had slipped up. She shouldn’t have let me know that she read my blog.”

Stephanie’s discovery that Emily has a twin causes her to reevaluate everything she knew about her friend. When Emily first contacted her, Stephanie was frightened, but upon this new discovery, has decided to go on the offensive. She uses her blog to communicate with Emily while appearing to make only general comments to her readership, another small way in which Stephanie is Living a Double Life.

“I missed her—and I made myself stop missing her. We can control how we think and feel. I was good at not missing people.”

Here, Emily talks about the first time that she and Eve separated, soon after a brutal argument in which Emily confronted Eve’s drug abuse. This quote illustrates Emily’s personal control and how easily she is able to distance herself even from her loved ones. This separation contributes to Emily’s continued emotional distance from Eve and enables her to manipulate Eve into dying by suicide.

“My sister’s pale little face blanched with shock. She stared at me. Was I giving her permission? Did I want her to die? I wasn’t telling her to live. I wasn’t offering to protect her. She buried her face in her hands. Then she turned away from me and looked toward the porch and said, ‘You know what? I think I’ll go for a little swim…The cold water will wake me up…I’ll be back in five minutes.’”

In this pivotal scene, Emily refuses to step in and save Eve. Although neither of them addresses it directly, they both understand that Emily, for the first time, isn’t going to stop Eve from harming herself. Even after Eve goes down to the water, Emily refuses to acknowledge her part in what is happening, instead choosing to escape into sleep until after Eve does what Emily knows she is going to do.

“It was hard to believe that the person who wept at the thought of women without clean water was the same person who stole my mother’s ring. Much later, Emily confessed that she hadn’t been crying for the poor women but because she’d had to deal with so many disasters at the charity gala and was facing another of Dennis’s inevitable shit fits. The beautiful woman who’d wept out of sympathy and compassion—that woman never existed.”

The reader hears from Sean only at a few points in the novel, but he offers another perspective from which to view Emily’s behavior. He has a history with her that no one else is privy to. Here, he reveals that the beginning of their relationship was based in a misunderstanding, and this event illustrates the dynamic of their relationship. Emily is absorbed in her own wants and needs, but Sean misinterprets her tears. Their relationship is born out of his fundamental misunderstanding of Emily’s character.

“I suppose there was a lot that Stephanie and I didn’t say to each other. I’d seen no reason to mention the fact that Miles was her brother’s son. Maybe Stephanie and I got along better that way. Maybe the only way to get along with another person is to tell huge lies of omission.”

While Sean considers his relationship with Stephanie, he sees it mainly as one of convenience. He enjoys it because he sees Stephanie as uncomplicated even though he knows the truth about her history and Miles’s parentage. In his relationships with both women, Sean has let them lead the way and shape their interactions, and his experience with Emily has taught him that maybe that was the best way.

“Emily’s breathing had sped up, and she looked flushed, excited. If I saw her from a distance and didn’t know what she was talking about, I’d think, What a happy woman!”

Emily has murdered Mr. Prager and convinced Stephanie to help her dispose of the body. In this passage, Stephanie notes Emily’s excitement and that it could be interpreted from a distance as happiness. In fact, her assessment of Emily still holds true—Emily is, on some level, happy because she is doing something dangerous and risky. Emily, like Stephanie, feels most alive when she succumbs to The Allure of What’s Forbidden.