Summary

In Chapter 16, “wild bees and their fizzy curiosities”, Doireann and her husband purchase a house for the first time. When they move into the new home, the narrator finds traces of the woman who lived in the house before them, “her plastic pegs shivering on the clothes-line, her teacups tucked into each other, neat as dreams, the basket of soft dusting cloths under her sink” (265). She hopes that she will have another baby soon and resume her breastfeeding ritual in the new home. One day, Doireann sees a kitten in the garden and coaxes it into the house. Her husband does not understand her devotion to taming and spaying the cat; he sees the kitten as an unnecessary expense. Later, he tells Doireann that he does not want more children. He already decided...