Freaky Friday

Annabel finds that getting a washing machine repairperson to come to the house is a frustrating and time-consuming process. In the end, she can only get an appointment a week away. The family’s cleaner, Mrs. Schmauss, arrives as Annabel is trying on one of her mother’s fancy velvet pantsuits. Mrs. Schmauss is shocked that “Ellen” is planning to go to the liquor store in this outfit. Annabel thinks how tedious it is that etiquette demands that adults change clothes many times a day—specific clothes for housework, for shopping, for lunches out, and for going out at night.

Mrs. Schmauss shows her that the washing machine is not actually broken—it simply stopped at the end of its cycle. Mrs. Schmauss looks inside and informs Annabel that the machine is badly overloaded; as “Ellen,” Annabel claims that Annabel did the laundry, and Mrs. Schmauss is stunned at the idea of Annabel actually trying to be helpful. Annabel tells her that she can skip Bill’s shirts, and Mrs. Schmauss is taken aback: She has never laundered Bill’s shirts. It is one of the two things she announced she would not do when she began working for the Andrews family. Annabel asks what the other thing is.