In the present, Jessica struggles to sleep. She reflects on meeting her husband Phil when he worked as a busboy at the restaurant where she was a maître d’. The phone rings. Her earlier client, Debbie, is again accusing her of stealing pills, and she now has evidence of the theft. In a panic, Jessica takes pills in order to sleep.

The narrative shifts to the first-person perspective in the office of Dr. Warren. The unnamed narrator continues with her story, telling the doctor how “the church ladies came to [her] house to help [her] out with [her] financial situation” (101). After a man named John helped to balance the family’s books, the narrator began attending church weekly with her mother. One week, John chastised the narrator in front of her mother, saying that her mother had allowed her “to take advantage of [her] father’s death” (102). However, as they walked home, the narrator’s mother told her to tolerate John because he was giving them money. Dr. Warren responds with sympathy, eliciting the first positive response from the narrator.