Absolution

In August, Tricia, Lily and Charlene drive to the leprosarium with Dominic and a military doctor named Wally Welty. Charlene informs Tricia that Lily’s close cousin lives at the leprosarium. Tricia lies to Peter about her whereabouts. A divide has been growing between them since her miscarriage, as Tricia has been struggling to resume sexual intimacy and Peter is growing impatient. Still, he treats her with kindness, and her primary motivation for lying is to spare him the emotional weight of what she will witness.

At the leprosarium, Charlene flirts brazenly with Wally Welty, even kissing him in front of the group. Tricia is initially repulsed by the heavily scarred and maimed patients but pushes past her misgivings. The group works diligently for half a day, whereupon they are joined by a strange man who introduces himself as a retired American military doctor. Though good-looking, the man is extremely dirty and appears to have emerged directly from the jungle. The group is discomfited by his presence, especially when he recalls treating a Vietnamese child with hydrocephalus and says, “[T]he only humane thing to do was to hold a gentle pillow over the poor monster’s little face until he stopped breathing” (182).