62 pages • 2 hours read
Nita ProseThe Maid
Fiction | Novel | AdultA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: "Tuesday"
Part 2, Chapter 6 Summary
Molly dreams that Mr. Black comes into her house while she is watching Colombo. She shouts at him that no one comes to her apartment since Gran died. She turns a laser stare on him, and he turns to dust, coating the room with dirt and making her cough and gag. Molly wakes and gets ready for work. As she is locking her apartment door, Mr. Rosso, her landlord, reminds her that her rent is overdue. She promises to pay it.
On her way into the hotel, Molly stops and asks Mr. Preston if anyone visited Mr. Black the day before. Mr. Preston says he didn’t see anyone. Molly encounters Mr. Snow at the reception desk. He shows her a newspaper article about Mr. Black’s death. The article mentions that Black Properties & Investments is accused of fraud and embezzlement, but so far, nothing has been proven.
Molly asks if Giselle is still staying in the hotel. Mr. Snow takes her toward a corner of the lobby and sits beside her. He tells her Giselle is on the second floor now, and Sunitha will be cleaning her room. He tells her the Black suite is out of bounds today. Molly begins her day by giving Juan Manuel the key card to Room 202 so he can sleep there that night.
Her next stop is the lobby to retrieve newspapers to deliver to guests. Rodney rushes out from behind the bar to greet her. He has a black eye, which he says he received when he ran into a door. He says he knows she found the body yesterday, and he wants to know all the details. He asks if she can come by after her shift and tell him about it. Molly is elated; this will be their second date.
Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary
Setting to work, she finds herself flashing back to the memory of Mr. Black and everything she saw in his suite. She distracts herself by thinking about Rodney. Their affection was cemented 18 months earlier when Molly walked into a room that was supposed to be empty. She encountered two imposing men with shaved heads and facial tattoos. Rodney and Juan Manuel stepped out of the bathroom, and one of the two men demanded to know what was going on and who Molly was. Rodney assured the man that he would take care of it.
None of this seemed strange to Molly. All she noticed was that they had made a mess. There was white powder—powdered sugar, she assumed—all over the table, footprints on the rug, and fingerprints everywhere. She quickly cleaned the powder off the table. Rodney pointed out to his friends that Molly could be very helpful. He asked Molly to meet after her shift so they could talk privately.
That evening, Rodney told Molly what happened in the room: the two men were Juan Manuel’s friends. Juan Manuel was not a documented immigrant. His work permit had run out. If anyone found out, he would be deported, but his family in Mexico depended on his income. Juan Manuel lost his apartment, and Rodney let him sleep in one of the unused rooms at the hotel.
Rodney said that he could use Molly’s help. Each day, she could tell him which rooms were unoccupied and take Juan Manuel’s overnight bag to an empty room. Afterward, she could clean the room so that no one would know he had been there. Molly was happy to help. She sees Rodney as a modern Robin Hood, breaking the rules to help someone in trouble.
Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary
After her shift, Molly meets Rodney in the hotel bar. They take a booth at the back, and Rodney asks her to tell him everything she saw in the hotel room. Was there anything out of place or suspicious? Molly tells him about the money missing from the safe and Giselle’s pills spilled on the floor. Rodney gives Molly his phone number and tells her to call him if the police bother her again.
Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary
Molly arrives home to find Giselle outside her building. Giselle is distraught and wants the comfort of the one person she feels is a true friend. The police questioned her. Mr. Black’s daughter Victoria called her and screamed threats and abuse at her. The first Mrs. Black took the phone away from her daughter and apologized for Victoria’s behavior. Molly assures Giselle that she doesn’t have to worry about Victoria and she knows Giselle didn’t kill her husband.
Giselle admits that she and her husband fought Monday morning just before Molly arrived. Mr. Black yanked off his wedding ring, threw it across the room, and stormed out. Giselle asks Molly for a favor: to retrieve a gun that Giselle hid in the overhead bathroom fan. Molly remembers Mr. Snow said that when a guest asks for something unusual, do whatever you can to help. She agrees to get the gun.
Part 2 Analysis
In Molly’s dream, Mr. Black turns into a cloud of dirt that chokes Molly and taints everything in her life. He represents the mess that Molly is trying to clean up. Her life is full of messes at the moment. Mr. Black is one. Her dire financial situation—personified by Mr. Rosso—is another. The connection between the two messes in her mind will make it seem reasonable to pawn Mr. Black’s ring the next day.
Molly’s questions about Mr. Black’s visitors and whether Giselle is in the hotel give the impression that she is planning to investigate the murder. As becomes clear at the end of the story, however, Molly already knows who killed Mr. Black. What she wants to know is where her friend Giselle is and whether anyone noticed the first Mrs. Black in the hotel on the day of Mr. Black’s death.
In the maiden’s story archetype, Mr. Snow represents the weak or naïve father/king. Often, the maiden assumes an inappropriately mature role in relation to the father. Mr. Snow’s confiding in Molly is an overly intimate interaction with a subordinate. It is a sign both of Mr. Snow’s weakness as a leader and his confidence in Molly. He recognizes her nascent strength but doesn’t provide her the guidance and support she needs to fulfill her potential.
As a father figure, Mr. Snow contrasts with Molly’s (probable) grandfather, Mr. Preston. Mr. Preston is present for Molly and gives her good advice without dominating her in the role of a parent.
The Robin Hood analogy shows that Molly has a grasp of moral ambiguities even if her understanding of human behavior is shaky. She values taking care of friends over adherence to rules. Rodney represents the archetypal predator. He is a seducer who uses Molly’s innocence and her crush on him to conceal his drug dealing. Part of the maiden’s Coming of Age requires that she reject the seductive predator and see him clearly.
When Molly tells Giselle she doesn’t have to worry about Victoria, the reader has doubts because Molly’s judgment about people is questionable. The same is true for her assurance that Giselle didn’t kill her husband. The reader doesn’t yet know what Molly saw in the mirror; she might have seen the murderer, or she might not. She might misjudge Giselle. Once the reader sees that Molly knows the first Mrs. Black is the real murderer, it is clear that Molly’s reassurances are simple statements of fact.
Giselle’s asking Molly to retrieve the gun throws doubt on Giselle; the reader wonders if once again Molly is being used by an unscrupulous person. Giselle has said things like, “You’re a bit weird, but I like you” (46) and “I don’t care what anyone else thinks. You’re the best” (110), which could be interpreted as either malicious or loving.
