She’s a schoolteacher, like me, so we have to mind the details, though Eula minds them more closely than I do. But she can’t tell I bought the potato salad from Publix, added some chopped boiled egg, mustard, pickle relish, and paprika, and put it in my red Tupperware bowl.
-- Caroletta (Eula)

Importance: This quotation from “Eula” (1) contains seemingly banal information that includes key details about the relationship between Caroletta, the narrator, and her friend Eula. At the time of this narration, Caroletta is meeting Eula in a hotel suite that Eula has booked two towns away, possibly for the sake of discretion, as the two women, who have been best friends since high school, are planning on having sex. Caroletta’s observation that Eula minds the details more closely than she does can be interpreted as meaning that Eula cares more about appearances, and that as a devout Christian who...