Summary

The narrator has a day off, but the Woman in the Purple skirt is working. The narrator decides to go to the hotel anyway. Once they arrive, the narrator realizes she forgot her uniform at home. She cannot move around the building without it. "Feeling enraged and frustrated," she takes the bus home (82). At home, she sleeps for the majority of the day. Once she wakes up, she wanders down to "the shopping district," shocked to encounter the Woman in the Purple Skirt heading in her direction (83). The Woman is walking strangely, ambling drunkenly. The narrator is angry at herself for not returning to the hotel earlier. She missed so much of the Woman’s day.

Two days later, the narrator sees the Woman on the bus for the first time since her drunken walk home. The bus is filled. Amidst the crowded...