Summary

The chapter title is “Indian Summer.” Author May begins with the comment that “Some winters happen in the sun,” and goes on to say that her persona winter began “in early September, a week before [her] fortieth birthday” (3). She describes celebrating the occasion with a round of gatherings in a seaside town in England, “bathed in the warmth of an Indian summer” (3). May then describes the appendicitis attack experienced by her husband, whom she refers to as “H,” an attack that led to H being hospitalized. May describes her perceptions that he was being neglected, perceptions that led her to behaving more insistently than she usually would to get him care. Once he was comfortably out of surgery, May says, she remained unable to sleep, lying awake in bed and searching both the darkness and her mind for ways through. “The only...