Summary

Chapter 12 (Nell’s Journal) – In this brief chapter, Nell describes coping with the fever that has struck Bankson, and how she and Fen both took care of him. She realizes that Fen’s frequent impatience with her illness and now with Bankson is fear of death and loss (which he, she comments, experienced with his mother). She also thinks that his capacity for caregiving bodes well for his being a father “if that day ever comes.” After a brief moment of lucidity, Bankson sinks deeply into delirium, Nell commenting in narration on how Fen kept talking non-stop, perhaps in the thought that listening to him would keep Bankson alive.

Chapter 13 (First person, past tense, Bankson narrating) – This chapter is written in fragmented chunks of differing lengths, reflecting the sorts of consciousness experienced by the ailing Bankson. The first part is written in disjointed...