Henrietta

The protagonist, Henrietta, is suffering through a foggy third week in July. Her husband, Billy, is using underhanded tactics to manipulate a move from San Francisco to Auburn, California. His tactics coupled to Henrietta's own problems at her workplace cause her to question her judgments and virtues. For years those judgments and virtues have kept her constant and sure. They are valued at the bank where she works and in the neighborhood where she smoothes over her husband's antics. The list of her virtues, however, does not include submitting easily to another's terms or making a quick judgment for change. It is only during this week of fatigue, angst and some unpleasant quandaries that she begins to question her own actions and her feelings for Billy.Henrietta's fears and beliefs have often caused problems for Billy. Her hesitancy to consider a change in their lifestyle, even when such would seem necessary and obvious, frustrates him. Billy, a salesman for Bristol's Game and Party Supplies, has wanted to move for a long time; his relatives have moved; and his "working and joking" has backfired. He feels he has been patient with Henrietta. Finally his patience runs out and he takes charge by using Henrietta's fear of abandonment as the basis of a sales-pitch to sell Auburn to her.