Evelyn believes the cars passing her house contain secret agents come to watch her, that the boys who play basketball across the road want to see her naked. Her feet inside her bedroom shoes are slowly turning black. Hardy dabs at a spot on her thigh with a cotton ball dipped in alcohol.Evelyn says, “You’re not trying to poison me, are you, Hardy?”Hardy thinks, too much medication. Hardy thinks, you are just about crazy. He squints at the numbers on the side of the syringe.Evelyn says, “It would be easy for you to poison me if you wanted to harm me. You wouldn’t ever harm me, would you, Hardy?”“No baby,” says Hardy. “I would never harm you.”Evelyn says, “I know you love that dog more than you love me.”Hardy says, “Hush, hold still.” Hardy was a hero during the war. The first man he killed had leapt out of a foxhole in North Africa and tried to run away. Hardy led him slightly and dropped him like a rabbit. The last man Hardy killed had been taking a leak, in Czechoslovakia, two days before the war ended.
