January Kelly Summary

Kelly answers the doorbell at ten o'clock Friday morning to Amy and the photographer. She leads them into the living room that she'd gotten up at six to clean. She's dressed in a suit she'd snuck home from the dry cleaners. She offers them coffee from her sparkling kitchen and cookies arranged on the perfect tray that Becky had done that morning. She carries it into the living room, admiring the freshly mopped floor, the pear-scented air from the candles lit the night before, the cashmere throw that Ayinde had lent her draped over the Ghetto Couch and the antique lace table cloth thrown over cardboard boxes that passed for a coffee table.

Kelly recites her biography, listing her siblings' names, talking about the good things: her entrepreneurial foray into raising and selling gerbils, planning her own birthday parties and those...