Summary

The story opens in the Toronto General Hospital. The protagonist, Janet, a divorced, middle-aged writer, visits her father in the cardiology wing of the hospital. Janet’s father says that he is worried that the hospital’s insurance will not cover his care, but Janet says that he will probably not be charged extra for anything. Janet looks at the screen of the heart monitor and feels unnerved. Her father seems calm and optimistic, and he says that the hospital has placed him on tranquilizer pills. Janet thinks about the previous night, when she had brought her father to the hospital. He had been pale and had used the quiet, controlled voice “he always used in a crisis” (218). Janet recalls him using the same voice one day when the chimney of their house caught on fire. He calmly asked for baking powder to throw...