“I was at the doctor,” she replied listlessly. “I’ve got the stomach flu, so it’s better not to get too close to me. You go have a good time with friends or family, and we’ll talk in the morning. I’m all doped up now. I feel like I’m at the bottom of a well.”
Hoping to avoid sharing a bed with her husband that night, she decided to tell him she’d sleep in the library because she didn’t want to give him the flu. The library gave her a cozy feeling. She would shut herself up alone there, let out her frustrations by dancing to the wild strains of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and study the rest of the time. But she was too weak to carry through with her plan.
After giving up on getting her to cuddle, he drifted off to sleep. She could hear his snoring. Amazed to be alive, Zain struggled to k
