Chip and I are lying in bed, having just put DeWitt in a cab to go home. He stayed after the others were taken home by the limo that Chip and Mrs. Peters arranged for, and the three of us went to the Oak Bar in the Copley Plaza for a nightcap. DeWitt and I had martinis, and Chip had a cigar.

“I don’t know how to thank you for what you did,” I tell Chip.

“I just hope it showed you something.”

“I … It did.”

“All right.”

“Did you see Rose eating with her hands?”

“Oh, well. Egyptians always ate with their hands.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He yawns.

“You must be exhausted, Chip.”

“I took a nap this afternoon.”

“Still.”

“Yeah, I am tired. But I don’t want to sleep when there’s so little time left.”

“There might be more time than you think. You don’t know.”

“I do know, though.”

I turn to him. “What do you mean?”

He sighs. “It’s time, Myra. This … pissing the bed, and all the other … Look, I’ve thought about this. I knew a few weeks after I was diagnosed that I’d be the one to decide when. I don’t want to hang around to see what else will happen. I don’t want to be sitting in a car, stuck for five hours.”

“But you …”

“I’m all set. I have what I need. I just want … I would like to not be alone. Will you stay with me when I do it? Can you do that?”

I say nothing. Inside, it feels as though a screw is being tightened, then tightened more.

“I know it’s a lot to ask. I have a friend in New York who’ll do it if you can’t. I made him promise, early on, that if things got bad, he’d help. He said he’d suffocate me, if he had to.”

“Oh, Chip.”

“No. He’s a good friend to agree to it.”

“But how are you … ?”

“I got some pills.”

“From where?”

He says nothing.

“Oh, my God. From DeWitt.”

“Well, from a friend of his. A doctor, actually, who buys his marijuana from DeWitt.”

“Chip, you can’t do that. DeWitt can’t be trusted. What if—”

“He can be trusted. I know exactly how it’ll work. First, you take something to keep you from throwing up. Then, in about twenty minutes, you take the rest.”

“The rest of what? What did he give you?”

“He thought it would be better if I didn’t know. I think he’s right.”

I lie quietly for a while. Then, “I’m going with you,” I say.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I want to.”

He sits up, turns on the light. “Okay. We’re going to get this straightened out right now. Get dressed, we’re going outside.”

“Chip—”

“Myra, you think you love me, right?”

I swallow. “I do love you.”