Summary

The narrator says that Marie's whole body aches from having been a maid so long: she squatted on floors to clean and stood most of the day. Marie has never purchased a durable pair of work shoes, always saying that she would buy them with her next paycheck but never actually doing so. One time, Marie hurt her back so badly that she fell on the sidewalk, and continued to tear the muscles in her back frequently over the years. "But she'd missed only a few days of work because of her bad back," the narrator says, "She'd spend on day in bed, recovering, and then she'd force herself back to cleaning" (8). Marie is fat now, having gained weight gradually during her time as a maid, but she is comfortable in her skin and sees that she looks like most of the other women...