The Housekeeper and the Professor

When she returns to work, the narrator transfers the Professor’s notes to his summer suit, rewriting ones that have become worn. Despite the fact that some of the notes are outdated, she feels uncomfortable throwing any of them away. As she reads through them, she realizes how difficult each day must be for the Professor.

The Professor is working on an especially difficult problem, one that offers the largest prize in the Journal of Mathematics’ history. The Professor doesn’t care about the money, and typically doesn’t even cash the checks he receives; in the past, the narrator simply forwarded the checks to the widow. The narrator realizes that the Professor essentially has to start from scratch each morning, with only his notes to help him.

One night, to her surprise, the Professor comes out to the kitchen while she’s making dinner; usually, when he is working on a problem, she hardly sees him. He watches her cook, and as she does, he asks her to explain each step. After he returns to his study, the narrator looks at the food and her hands, suddenly filled with a sense of satisfaction.

Once Root’s summer vacation begins, he comes with her to work in the morning; at first, the narrator is concerned that this will upset the widow, but the Professor insists that she not leave Root alone, even though Root spends most of his time playing with his friends.

The Professor finishes the proof on July 31. As usual, the narrator runs the proof to the post office, doing a bit of shopping while she’s out, but ensuring she returns before the 80-minute window is up. However, when she returns 70 minutes later, the Professor no longer remembers who she is.

In August, Root goes on a short camping trip with other children his age. The narrator lingers at the Professor’s the first night he’s gone, reluctant to go back to an empty house. While they eat fruit together after dinner, a thunderstorm rolls in; it brings a welcome, cool breeze, but the narrator worries about Root. When she tells the Professor that she feels empty without Root, he asks if she feels a zero in her, which leads them to discuss the discovery of the number zero; the Professor explains that despite the Greeks’ belief that a zero would disturb the rules of calculation, it in fact brings a greater order to them.

Root returns safe and sound, but he is upset to learn that the Tigers have fallen back down to fourth place. With Root back, they begin listening to the Tigers again on the radio. The Professor gives Root one of his old notebooks so Root can track their statistics. 

Toward the end of the summer, the narrator notices that the Professor’s jaw is swollen; she assumes he’d been hiding the pain. Getting him to the dentist proves to be easy, as the pain has “taken the fight out of him” (147). When he emerges from his appointment, the Professor brushes her aside and walks away without looking at her—he doesn’t remember her any more even though they were apart less than an hour.

Shortly after Root returns to school, the Professor receives a letter notifying him that his proof has won first prize. However, despite the narrator’s enthusiasm, he shows little interest. She wonders if all mathematicians are like this, or if this is a special quirk of the Professor, who often refuses to acknowledge that he has done anything special to deserve admiration or gratitude. The narrator tries to convince the Professor to celebrate his achievement; when he pushes back, she points out that Root’s 11th birthday is coming up, so the Professor agrees to celebrate both together.

Root and the narrator decide to give the Professor an Enatsu baseball card, so she and Root sneak into the study to look through the cookie tin to see which ones he already has. Although Root has never collected baseball cards, once he sees the Professor’s collection, “there was no going back” (154). Root accidentally drops the tin. As they rush to put the cards back, the narrator notices that the tin has a false bottom. Beneath the cards, they discover the Professor’s thesis from 1957, when he was 29. She flips through the thesis, fascinated by the Professor’s work. Buried in the thesis is a black-and-white photograph of the Professor sitting with a woman with whom he clearly shares a bond; the narrator is certain that the woman is his sister-in-law. At the top of the cover page, a note reads “For N, with my eternal love. Never forget” (158). Suddenly, the tin morphs from a container of baseball cards to a tomb of the Professor’s memories.

Not only are Enatsu cards hard to come by, but the Professor already seems to own all the cards printed before 1975. They research baseball card magazines and visit shop after shop looking for an Enatsu card the Professor doesn’t already own, turning up nothing. However, one shop owner tells them that in 1985, a candy company reissued an older Enatsu card from his days on the Tigers. Later, when the narrator describes her search for cards at her agency, one of the other housekeepers mentions that her mother used to run a candy shop, and that she recalls seeing leftover cards. They go straight from the agency to the woman’s house and finally find the Enatsu card they’ve been looking for.