The main character who is the narrator of the story is locked in a suspicious behaviour and a profound distrust for her husband. The events have cracked up their couple so that she seems to find an outlet to express what she doesn’t like about her husband without controlling her thought. The more striking proof of this situation lies in the details of the events her husband has experienced during his summer camp she gives us. She constantly refers to how much they (Stuart and his friends) spent their time drinking alcohol, smoking and fooling around, paying a special attention to the quantity of whiskey they imbibed (“drank their whiskey”; “drank more whiskey”; p.71-72). She even “pities” him, and eventually says what she hates in him (“I hate him for that, for not moving.” p.70). Her inquiring mood leads her to subjective comparisons. Her husband’s hands seem suddenly repulsive and threatening (“the same hands he’d left with two days before”P73; “the broad fingers, knuckles covered with hair” p.74) after she learned of the dead girls they found.
On the other hand, Stuart’s behaviour is also fuelling the suspicious spirit of his wife. Constantly drinking and smoking cigarettes, he looks like someone who is trying to convince himself that nothing has happened (or maybe he is pretending to do so), blurring his mind in alcohol and cigarettes’ smoke (“then he opened a beer and smoked a cigarette”p.74; “Stuart lighted a cigarette 75). At this point of the story we are not able to say whether he tries to cope with this dreadful experience or whether he is hiding something from his wife. After all, what he told his wife seemed pretty confused or at least blurred (by the emotion or by the remorse?) since she fancies about what really happened. His will to get his wife pass over these events is also strange and questionable (“Goddamn it, why can’t people mind their own business? Tell me what I did wrong and I’ll listen! It’s not fair”