Fear of Death

Readers never know exactly what illness the sick friend dies of or precisely what her symptoms are; therefore, the major focus of the story is on the women's verbal, behavioral, and psychological responses in confronting their own mortality. The one is dying, the other (the narrator) is observing both her friend's behavior and her own reactions to the phenomenon of death.

The dying woman engages in trivial conversation and ghoulish jokes in dealing with her situation. For example, she loops a phone cord around her neck and exclaims "end o' the line." She also wants something specific from the visiting friend when she has a second bed placed in the room. The expectation of spending the night with her dying friend "hit me like an open coffin.... She wants my life."

Conscious of her situation, the dying woman mentions Swiss psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of...