Summary

The story “Bravery” opens with a brief scene of the protagonist’s youth. When Susan is in college, her roommate remarked that Susan always dated kind and gentle young men. The story then shifts ahead several years. Susan is at an art gallery in San Francisco, and she meets a man named Elijah. Susan is a psychiatric social worker, and Elijah is a pediatric doctor. They eventually marry and take a trip to Prague. Elijah is kind, and Susan admires his ability to comfort everyone he meets. While in Prague, they plan to try to conceive a child. After they visit a church in Prague, Elijah says that he loves Susan, and he is a little perturbed when she does not then say that she loves him. Susan insists that she declares her love for him all the time.

A homeless woman...