Summary

As this chapter begins, Dorothy discovers a large lump of tissue on her toilet paper, and is surprised because she thought her bleeding had stopped. She tries to pull the lump apart to find out its content, but is unsuccessful. Narration then describes how she has come to Las Vegas to present an academic paper at a conference, how a book she was reading on the plane seemed to have spoken to her challengingly about her mediocrity, and how she had reconnected with an ex named Keith. Keith, Dorothy recalls, had attempted to make love with her by speaking poetry into her vagina, and had been angry and confused when she did not respond positively. A few weeks after they broke up, Dorothy found Rog, whom she thinks of as never engaging in the same sort of very intimate...