Marie Morgan sits at the dining-room table, trying to come to grips with the loss of her husband. She thinks that she must take it just one day at a time, though the nights will be torture. It would be different, she believes, if she truly cared about her daughters, but she does not. She must get started on something, or she will become dead inside. It is a week since Harry’s death. She tries not thinking about him, fearing that if she does, she will not remember what he looked like. She had panicked when she looked at him in death and could not remember how he looked alive. Although it would have been better if he had left some money, she knows it would make no difference as to how she felt.

The first thing she knows she must do is sell the house. She stops and thinks about the Cubans who murdered her husband. All she has left inside is hate for them. She regrets not having gone to Harry’s funeral, but she could not bring herself to go. She thinks how lucky she was to have had Harry as a husband. As for Harry’s luck, it began to go bad when he was in Cuba. It kept getting worse until a Cuban killed him. She considers Cubans bad luck. She thinks also that there are too many black people in Cuba. She remembers a time when a black Cuban insulted her, and Harry smacked him and threw his hat in front of a taxi. She remembers how she laughed. It was the first time she had dyed her hair blonde. The beauticians had not wanted to dye her hair because it was so dark, but Marie kept urging them to make it even lighter. She had been very pleased with the job, thinking her hair turned out looking like gold. She had walked down to the café where Harry was waiting, excited to see how he would react. He had stared at her and told her that she was beautiful. He immediately wanted to go to a hotel.

Marie realizes that she is no longer young and beautiful, but she must start on something. Harry had always been good to her, always provided for her. She thinks about trying to sleep alone. She must try to feel dead inside in order to make everything easier. She looks out the window at the beautiful day and sees a large white yacht coming into the harbor, with a tanker not too far behind.