Summary

The narrator’s husband wants her to go to the gynecologist because he has become obsessed with having a baby. When she will not, he takes hot metal to his skin, burning it until she will go with him. One night the husband’s cousin calls and asks to speak to the narrator. He tells her quickly that her husband has been married before. This gives the narrator hope that she can escape too if the other women did.

When the couple goes to the gynecologist, the doctor prescribes birth control pills to regulate the narrator’s cycle so she can get pregnant. The husband refuses these pills and instead the narrator receives some vitamins from the doctor. The doctor never asks her if she wants to have a baby. The narrator’s mother thinks a baby would help calm the husband...