Summary

The narrator and the man went to the dressing rooms. Because “they were for women only,” the man said the narrator “would have to go alone” (291). This made sense to the narrator. No one would want someone they did not know to see them in their underpants. However, she “was afraid of going into the dressing room alone” (291). She also feared the man would be gone when she came out. She asked him for his name just in case. Crouching to her height, the man explained that he could not tell her his name because he was cursed. A woman who hated him had said he would die “the next time” he said his name (291). The narrator could not tell if he was joking. She told him to “write it down” so she could call him if she got scared.

The man thought...