Summary

In the section “The Door,” the narrator describes her recurring nightmare. She is unable to open the door to her house and let a paramedic crew in to save a dying patient. She tries to call out to other residents of the house for help but has also lost the power to speak. When she wakes she realizes that the dream she has was once a reality because there was one woman who would open her door to no one but her. The narrator tells her reader that she feels she is responsible for killing Emerence. The fact she was trying to save the old woman rather than harm her makes no difference in her mind.

In the section “The Contract,” the narrator recalls how Emerence always kept her head covered and face veiled with a headscarf. She had approached...