Cathedral

In the waiting room of a train station, Miss Dent thinks about how she just threatened a man with a gun for hurting her. After she told the terrified man what she needed him to hear, she used her foot to shove his face into the dirt and walked to the train station with the gun in her purse. It is late, the ticket desk is no longer open, and Miss Dent is alone in the room. An older couple enters, seemingly annoyed that there is someone already in the waiting room as they “gave off an air of agitation of having just left somewhere in a great hurry and not yet being able to find a way to talk about it” (136). The man has no shoes, and Miss Dent surmises that they may also be drunk. The man greets Miss Dent as if everything is normal, and the woman gives her a look of disdain.

The woman speaks rapidly in a foreign language that sounds like Italian, but the man tells her to speak more slowly and in English. The woman complains about the “bunch of nuts” (137) at the gathering they just left, expressing pity for someone she refers to as “that girl” (137) and disdain for “that imbecile they call Captain Nick” (137). Miss Dent tries not to eavesdrop, but it is impossible not to hear their conversation. The woman insults all of the people they just left, and the man tells her not to become upset about it. When she comments derisively on his appearance, he laughs and says not to worry about him. In response, the woman delivers a tirade about how if she doesn’t worry about him, no one will. The man gets up and walks around the room, searching for abandoned matches. The woman complains about having been bored by home movies and then criticizes Miss Dent for remaining silent. She accuses Miss Dent of staying quiet when she undoubtedly should have a lot to say.

Miss Dent introduces herself and adds, “But I don’t know you” (139). The woman exclaims that she neither knows Miss Dent nor wants to know her. The old man leaves the room and returns, having found a match. The woman calls him lucky and then turns to Miss Dent again and carps at her again for not speaking up when the woman can tell by looking at her that she has experiences to talk about. Miss Dent opens her mouth to respond and considers telling the couple about the gun, but the train arrives. Perspective shifts to the people on the train, who are surprised to see people in the waiting room so late in the evening. They assume Miss Dent and the couple are travel companions and can tell that something unpleasant just occurred. But the passengers are not terribly concerned because “the world is filled with business of every sort” (141) and they have seen worse. They focus instead on their own lives as the train pulls out of the station.