While the husband is away at work, the narrator complains to her masseuse about her mother's health. She has fallen down a flight of stairs and has broken her leg. She asks the masseuse to care for her house until her mother recovers. The masseuse tells her that her brother is sulking and shutting himself in his room. The narrator tells him that he is a loser and that he should dust his bookshelf once in a while. He says that his brother used to be "bright and cool" and that dust is a waste. He asks if his brother is jealous of the beautiful wife he has just married. The woman says that she is jealous because her brother always gets jealous of her. She says that when she was younger, she was more popular with her brother than he was. She tells the masseuse that she can no longer hold it any longer.