Gertrude Brentwood considers herself the unofficial Deputy of Neighborhood Happenings. From her perch on Saucer Circle, she keeps one eye on the cul-de-sac and the other on her phone, ready to deliver breaking news faster than any social media feed. (In fact, admins of the neighborhood Facebook group once requested she tone down her “excessive helpfulness.”)
Armed with a garden trowel, a suspiciously high-powered pair of binoculars, and a heart full of civic duty, Gertrude can identify which dog left which mess, which teenager dinged which mailbox, and precisely how many minutes it took for the recycling truck to arrive this week.
She became Carolina Pérez Apaza‘s top informant on the actions of Hayden Hawk during the years following death of Carlos Huamán Fuentes and Michelle Hawk and Carolina’s subsequent marriage to Michael Hawk.
As Hayden struggled to deal with the death of his mother and the changing dynamics of his family, Gertrude thrilled in giving Carolina a front-row seat to Hayden at school. 95 percent of the time, Hayden wasn’t a particularly interesting subject to spy on for Gertrude, but she dutifully found excuses to wheel past his classrooms, reporting back everything she could to Carolina.
Naturally, when Carolina started noticing strange behavior from Santiago, she enlisted Gertrude’s help once again.
Gertrude’s personal motto: “If something’s happening on this street, it’s happening to me.”