Summary

In the beginning of this chapter, Ruth is checking whether she is pregnant. She is with Del, her husband, a man she met when she was nineteen and moved to Las Vegas with. She is clearly anxious about the arrival of another child, evidenced by her description of it “spiraling everything into chaos” and clearly stating that “she’d been working to stop at three” children (18). She reflects on her past and sadly notes that her future doesn’t seem much brighter. Homesick for Colorado and her family, Ruth leaves the office to call her sister, Teresa, who became a nun at twenty years old. On her way to call, she finds a crumpled brochure for a nursing program at a community college and silently notes that she had “always wanted to be a nurse” (19).

She calls her sister who is...