The weakness worsens. The pain in her abdomen sharpens. This isn’t hunger, she realizes. Mildred undergoes an emergency surgical procedure. She was alone when she walked into the clinic, and she is alone when she awakens from anesthesia. A nurse informs her that she had been pregnant but it was an ectopic pregnancy. The surgical procedure has long-lasting consequences: thick scar tissue in her fallopian tube will prevent her from ever having a baby.
