The Woman in the Window

Anna’s tenant, David, tells Anna he is going downtown, and she switches off her lights to discourage trick-or-treaters. As Anna watches a French film, she hears a strange sound at her door. When she goes to investigate, she sees three youngsters in the street throwing eggs at her house. She becomes enraged, and she tries to scold them through her intercom and opens her front door, only to tumble down her front steps. A young, attractive woman helps Anna; when Anna is able to reorient herself, she is back inside her home, and the woman has poured her a glass of brandy. Anna recognizes the woman, identifying her as “the woman from across the park” (55). When Anna addresses her as Jane Russell, the woman appears surprised and laughs.

Jane stays with Anna, and they converse. Anna explains to Jane that she had a panic attack upon opening her front door, which caused her to fall; she also tells Jane about her agoraphobia. Anna compliments Ethan, Jane’s son, and Jane shows Anna a picture of Ethan in a locket that she wears around her neck. Before Jane leaves, she notices David walking up the sidewalk, mistakenly believing that David is Anna’s very attractive husband. Anna explains that David is her tenant, which makes Jane laugh.

No trace of the eggs remains on the front of Anna’s house, thanks to David, who has cleaned them up for her; he is her tenant and her handyman. Anna logs on to the Agora, where she finds messages from members of the community. A new user named GrannyLizzie sends Anna a message; she is a 70-year-old in Montana who has been referred to Anna by another member of the Agora, and she needs Anna’s advice. They chat, and Anna calls her “Lizzie.” Lizzie reveals that she lost her husband a month earlier, and since his death, she has been unable to leave the house. Anna tries to develop a professional rapport with Lizzie, and their conversation is warm and congenial. Anna tells Lizzie her name, and when their chat ends, Anna is pleased to have made a personal connection with someone.

Later in the day, Anna notices evidence of water damage on her ceiling. She knocks on the basement door to ask David to look at it, and he agrees, looking disheveled. He tells her the mark on the ceiling is mildew. David pulls out a ladder and climbs up to investigate the roof, where a rooftop garden has overgrown. Anna waits below, and David tells her that the skylight is “flimsy” and offers to take a photograph of the garden to show Anna. David climbs down the ladder and offers to repair the mildew stain and to call an expert about the damp problem; he encourages her to open the windows, but Anna resists. David asks Anna about her situation, and she evades the question. Punch appears with a dead rat, and Anna hears someone in David’s apartment turn on the shower in the basement; David leaves abruptly.

Since his arrival two months earlier, David has done several odd jobs around the house for Anna according to the terms of their lease. Dr. Fielding, Anna’s psychiatrist, had suggested that Anna find a tenant who could help her around the house, and David was the first person to answer her ad on Airbnb.

Anna speaks with Ed and Olivia, reminding Ed to be careful not to let Olivia eat too much sugar, warning him that eight-year-olds often put on weight at this age.

Anna describes Dr. Fielding, her psychiatrist, as a “precise” man. He arrives at her house for their weekly appointment, and he asks her about the usefulness of her conversations with Ed and Olivia. Anna admits to him that she “can’t stop thinking—about the trip” (77) to New England she had taken the previous winter with Ed and Olivia. She blames the trip for the fact that she is estranged from her family and then changes the subject. Dr. Fielding asks about Anna’s physical therapy, and Anna asserts that she no longer limps and that her spine and ribs have healed. They discuss Anna’s medications. Anna needs “two hands to count them all” (80), and Dr. Fielding prescribes her another to help with her mood. Anna knows that she should not be drinking while taking so many psychotropic medications, but she pours herself a glass of wine anyway.

With her camera, Anna spies on the Russell house, noting that Ethan and Jane are sitting on the sofa in their living room. Jane appears to notice Anna, and she waves at Anna, startling Anna into dropping her camera. Anna is consumed with shame at being caught. The doorbell rings, and Anna sees Jane at the door, holding a bottle of white wine.

The two women talk, drink, eat candy, and play chess. Anna tells Jane she has not left the house in over 10 months. Jane asks Anna about her work, and Anna explains that she worked in “a two-person practice” (87). Anna shows Jane around her house, and Jane wonders about the umbrella in Anna’s living room. Anna explains about Dr. Fielding’s suggestion that she use the umbrella to protect herself from the elements as she practices going outside. The two women discover they share the same birthday, and Jane draws a portrait of Anna before Anna shows Jane her collection of medications.

As Jane smokes, Anna notices her pearl earrings. Jane describes them as a gift from an old flame, shrugging when Anna asks if the earrings bother Alistair. They discuss Alistair, whom Jane describes as “a good man and a good father” (91) who is also “controlling.” Jane tells Anna that her family life is “challenging,” and she appears to be on the verge of tears. Anna realizes that they are both drunk as Jane asks Anna about the reason why she is agoraphobic. Anna explains that she experienced a trauma.

At the end of their visit, which lasts two and a half hours, Anna feels happy at the prospect of having made a friend. Later in the evening, she is watching a film when Alistair Russell rings her doorbell. Anna is disoriented by her afternoon of drinking and by her medication; when Alistair introduces himself and asks if she has had any visitors, Anna slurs in response. She tries to determine Alistair’s motive in asking the question, explaining that she has been on her own that evening. Alistair leaves as Anna tells him to thank his wife for the candle that Ethan delivered; he looks surprised and does not respond. Anna peers through her camera at the Russell home before going to bed, and she sees Ethan, Jane, and Alistair talking in the living room. She frames a photograph but puts the camera down without taking the picture.

Anna wakes at nearly 10:30am, hungover. She looks online for Dr. Wesley Brill, her former colleague and business partner. When she speaks with Ed, she tells him the truth about her mixing alcohol with drugs and about Jane’s visit; he scolds her, suggesting she see less of the Russells. Anna becomes emotional as she talks with Ed, but their conversation is interrupted when Anna hears someone in her kitchen. She is about to call 911 when she realizes that the man is David; he has come up to the house through the basement door to look for a box cutter. Alistair Russell has asked David to help him unpack boxes, so David leaves with the box cutter as Bina arrives for Anna’s physical therapy session.

Anna first met Bina after leaving the hospital nearly 10 months earlier. They have lunch together after Anna’s exercises, and Bina hears the toilet flush in David’s downstairs apartment. They acknowledge that David has someone over, and Bina calls him a “slut.”

On the Agora, Anna feels “radiant” after a friendly chat with GrannyLizzie. At 5pm, she sips her wine and considers what movie to watch that evening when she hears a scream from the Russell home, followed by another scream. She calls directory assistance for the Russell’s phone number and calls the house; Ethan answers the phone, tells Anna that “[h]e just lost his temper” (116), and hangs up. Anna tries to find David, but he is not home, so she calls the Russells again, only to hear Alistair’s voice answer the phone. She tells him that she heard screaming from his house, watching him through her window as he denies any problem at the house and hangs up the phone. Perplexed, Anna sees Jane leave the Russell home and walk west.

A half hour later, Anna talks to David about the scream. He had heard nothing while working at the Russells. Ethan arrives at Anna’s front door moments later, upset, and Anna comforts him with a hug. She gives Ethan her cell phone number as Ethan insists he is not afraid of his father. Ethan leaves after Anna reminds him to use the number if he needs to and to give it to his mother.

Later, Anna stands in the shower before bedtime, feeling the effects of her new medication combining with the wine she has had. She feels “something dangerous” happening inside her brain as she writes Jane Russell’s name over and over with her finger on the glass of her shower.