"A Stroke of Good Fortune" Summary

Ruby, a married woman of thirty-four, enters her apartment building with a heavy sack of groceries, and stares up the steep, dark stairway leading to her and Bill Hill's apartment. She muses about her brother, Rufus, who is soon to return from the "European Theater" to live with her, because their former hometown, Pitman, does not exist anymore. She begins the climb up the dark staircase, growing more and more breathless with every step. She thinks about her recent visit to the psychic, Madame Zoleeda, who told her she was sick but that the outcome would bring good fortune in the end.

Ruby again reinforces her conviction she will never go to a doctor, no matter what, and she continues climbing. Memories of her deceased mother fill her mind. The price her mother...