now , high school '' she 'd let it go , as she would when he lied about why he lost his job at american messenger service ( dave saying it was another budgetary cutback , but other guys from the neighborhood were walking in off the street in the weeks that followed and scooping up jobs left and right ) , or when he told her his mother died of a sudden heart attack when the whole neighborhood had heard the story of dave coming home from senior year in high school to find her sitting by the oven , kitchen doors closed , towels pressed to the bottoms , gas filling the room .