Waiting alone in the gleaming, antiseptic operating theatre, with the byzantine cries of the frolicking children wafting in from outside, Luiz — she who had always seemed so cold! — thought once more of Charity, the ‘hooded visitor’ in her recurring dream. He was now, according to Brother Constance, the hapless captive of mind-devouring space aliens.
   Just then, came the sound she had been longing to hear, and she instinctively checked her fingernails. He was here! “I was a cad, a complete and utter fool! I can’t hope that you’ll ever be able to forgive me — but if you do not, I must die, you little fool!” he intoned.
   Then, without any warning, the glow of renewed love gradually overcame her mounting desire for dinner, and as the glow of renewed love gradually overcame her mounting desire for dinner, she at last understood that for the two of them, life was only now really beginning.