Summary

Set in the 1980s, "Janus" tells the story of a successful real estate agent named Andrea. Every real estate agent, the narrator says, has a trick for making houses seem special to buyers, and Andrea is no exception. Sometimes, she brings her dog to play in the kitchen of a house she's showing, so the place will feel more like a home. Always, she brings her ceramic bowl and places it somewhere in the house where a prospective buyer will see it.

Like Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings, the bowl has two faces. It is not attractive, yet is has presence. It seems at first to be glazed in a plain cream color, but when seen from different angles, the bowl shows bits of geometric color and bits of silver. Buyers are drawn to inspect the bowl more...