“I’m thinking about getting some arsenic.” She waited for that to sink in. “I read about it in this book called The Moor at Midnight. Women used to do it all the time. You take arsenic and it makes you pale. You get really thin and pale. It can make your bones thinner even. But you have to take the right amount. You have to be careful how much you take.”

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“I might. If I can find out the right amount.” She lay back against the pillows. “It’s really nice of you to come by, Rhoda. My sorority sisters came this afternoon, but they all left together. I’m glad you’re here.” She reached out with the hand that didn’t have tubes in it and I stood up and put my hand on top of hers.

“‘My life closed twice before its close,’” I began. “That’s the beginning of a poem.”

“It’s beautiful. ‘My life closed twice.’ You should have felt it when they sewed me up. I could feel them make the stitches. They were pulling through the thread.” She was fading now. Her hand relaxed beneath my hand. It lay upon her stomach in the exact same place that Hap Dumas had laid his hand on mine. “I better go,” I said. “I better let you sleep.”

“Come back tomorrow,” she said. “Come back tomorrow if you can.”

I left the hospital in a strange mood. The sky was dark and overcast, no sun or stars or celestial light. I started walking toward the campus. Then I changed my mind. I wanted a hamburger. I wanted a hamburger and some french fries and I wanted to talk to someone who was normal. I went back to the hospital and found a pay phone and called Hap. “Come and pick me up,” I said. “I’ll buy you a hamburger if you’ll take me to a drive-in.”

“Sure,” he said. “I have to get dressed though. Why did you call me? Why did you think of this all of a sudden?”

“I’m at the city hospital. Someone I know almost died. We could die, Hap. Do you realize that? I mean, do you really know it?”

“You want me to change clothes or come right now?”