Fever – Week 4

Mary has broken the conditions of her parole, and has started cooking again. For this she must run, and hide. Dr. Soper is once again looking for her. As she tries to find a place to go, she remembers Alfred and wonders where he has gotten off to. After they reconnect, she moves back in with him, knowing that Dr. Soper will not find her where she is at. While she takes in laundry, and other small jobs, she wonders from time to time whether he is still searching for her.

Alfred, however, has his own new demons to deal with. While he has given up alcohol, he has become addicted to morphine and other drugs that were given to him for pain management after his accident. He manages to get prescriptions from time to time, but then new laws go into effect. He is not able to get them legally, so he begins to  go to the black market to find the drugs needed. But they are beginning to take a toll on his body. Mary knows that she should leave, but the peace reigning within their household is enough to keep her there. She knows that he needs her, but she is only enabling his addiction, not helping him get better. When she arrives home one day, he is dead. She sits with him for a while before calling the doctor, who then sends the coroner. Mary is once again on her own, but with new problems as well. The hospital that she has been cooking for has had a typhoid outbreak, and like clockwork, Dr. Soper shows up. Mary no longer has the strength to fight him. and finds herself once again confined to North Brother. But the place now seems like home, and not the prison she once envisioned it to be.

On her way back, she wonders about her old friend and if he still works there..

This week we are reading Chapters 21- Epilogue

Questions:

1. Why do you think Mary broke her word to never cook again?
2. Do you think she should have pressured Alfred to move out toward the west where they could have both received a fresh start?
3. What do you think about her writings toward the end of her life? Do you think she was sincere?
4. Did you enjoy our read?