Hospital

Geographically, the story’s setting is ambiguous, but the individual locations are specific and concrete. For example, after the friend is admitted to the hospital, the narrator visits the friend there multiple times. The hospital is located in a town that is somewhat distant from the narrator’s town of residence, so the narrator rents a nearby room during her visits. At the hospital, the narrator and the friend discuss the friend’s condition, and the friend’s fears about dying. The friend states that her greatest fear is that her death will be long and painful.

Airbnb

Whenever the narrator visits her friend in the hospital, the narrator rents a room in a house near the hospital. She found the room for rent on the website Airbnb. The other occupants of the house are the homeowner and her cat. The homeowner is a friendly woman who is...