Chapter 2 Summary

Lawrence Kramer lies in bed, dreaming of the girl with the brown lipstick. He wants to kiss those seductively painted lips, but the thought of his wife stops him. Just then, his wife, Rhoda, wakes up, and her movement on the bed pulls Kramer out of his dream. He stares with disgust at his tiny bedroom and his wife's flabby belly. Forcibly, Kramer reminds himself that Rhoda's belly is flabby only from having given birth to their first child, a 3-week-old boy. His warm sentiment toward the mother of his child is short-lived, however. Critically, he thinks that Rhoda has begun to look just like her mother. He feigns sleep until his wife exits the bedroom. He hears her speaking to the baby nurse in the next room. He thinks gloomily about the tiny size of their three-and-a-half room apartment. It is rent...