I had wanted to find a house for us, but then I remembered a room I used to live in, in the house of an old woman who lived somewhere around Charles and Brown Street, and took Carolina there. When we arrived the front door was open, so we walked on in and went upstairs. I found that both the upstairs rooms were empty, and decided we would rent one. I even took the liberty of having a phone installed in the room I chose. I recalled that the old woman and I hadn't gotten along that well, and I had always treated her poorly, but I thought she would still allow me to move back in.

When we walked over to look at the second room, the old woman showed up. She didn't seem to recognize me at first, but finally seemed to recall who I was. She was probably in her 60s, and overweight. She didn't seem like a happy person, but lonely and unfulfilled. I explained to her that I would like to move in, and told her I would like to move into the room we were in because it had two beds, even though I had earlier thought I would like to be in the other one.

She seemed unsure at first, but I could tell she was going to acquiesce. As she was thinking about it, Carolina and I lay down on one of the beds. Carolina was wearing a top, but only had on white panties below. I was feeling close to Carolina, and also rather amorous. I put my hand on her crotch, and even thought of making love to her right here. The old woman wasn't watching us at the moment, but I thought even if she did, I wouldn't mind. But I thought better of it and stood back up. I told the woman that although Carolina and I were married, Carolina wouldn't be living with me, but with her mother. I said she might leave a few of her things here, but her belongings would stay with her mother. However I did ask if it would be all right if Carolina spent some nights here with me, probably Fridays and Saturdays. The woman seemed unsure of what to respond.

Instead of answering, she went out and brought me back a large yellow telephone book. I thanked her and was about to tell her I had already had a telephone line installed. But then I realized I probably should not say anything about it since I hadn't had her permission to do it. Besides, I had had it installed in the other bedroom and was going to have to have it changed anyway.

The old woman was still trying to decide as we walked downstairs. Standing in the living room, she told me that she was afraid to live in the house by herself anymore, and that she stayed in another house most of the time with her mother. Wanting to ease her fears, I put one of my arms around her shoulder. Looking around the room I noticed several almost life-size statues of the virgin Mary, and also several other icons of Mary on the walls. In fact, there was nothing else in the room but those. Although it seemed a bit unusual to me, I didn't really think it was peculiar to see the images.

The woman finally agreed that I could stay. Almost immediately I had the feeling she was going to start asking favors of me, asking me to do things for her. And indeed she brought out a light bulb, handed it to me and sought to know if I could fix it. I took it in my hand and saw that I could see into one end of the light bulb. She also handed me a smaller piece which she said screwed into the interior of the light bulb. But I could see that the piece didn't screw in, but had been a part of the light bulb and had broken off. Apparently her eyes were bad and she couldn't see that. I pointed out that a sharp sliver of glass was on the inside where the piece had broken off. She looked inside, stuck her finger in before I could stop her, and cut it on the sharp glass. As she pulled it back out I thought she should suck on it to stop the blood. I couldn't do it for her because her blood might be contaminated.

We walked out of the house to take the light bulb to a nearby store. As we went she told me of another fellow who had lived in a room upstairs but had moved away. When we reached the store, which had a window opening onto the street, a young fellow took the bulb and said that there were two kinds of bulbs like that, one which had a piece which could be screwed into the interior, and one like the one we had which didn't. He then produced a letter which had been written by the woman's former tenant and handed it to me. I began reading it. At first I thought he had addressed it to the old woman calling her "Ruth" and used the name Ruth several times. But then I realized the woman's name was actually "Doloris," and I used that name when talking with her.

The letter rambled about how the former tenant had lost his job that day, and apparently that was the reason he had left. He also talked about the light bulb, although it wasn't exactly clear what he was saying. I did however find it interesting that he spoke of it being a dark day and there being a dark sun in the sky.