Summary

The woman continues considering her story. There is another passage where a man became so ill, he was sure he would die. He was not really on his deathbed, but had merely eaten something poisonous, had drunk too much, and become incapacitated. Afraid, the man called the woman. The call came in "at the very moment the hurricane was supposed to strike the city" (174). The woman went to the man anyway. All of the windows in the neighborhood were covered with tape "in the shape of asterisks" (174).

When she arrived at the man's house, his shades were drawn. The windows shook. The stormy lighting made everything look yellow. The man was lying in bed. "His face was gray" (174). The woman realizes the sickly man has little to do "with the rest of the story" (175). His only significance is that his illness and the...