Chapter Twenty-Five
waking up on the floor, Cora dropping the breakfast tray, 'fainting', willing to lie for her
Spring, tulips
Serena Joy gardening (memory), arthritis, 'fruiting body', 'Saint Serena,' coveting shears
irises (present), bleeding hearts, female, buried things bursting upwards, desire, dropping pass at the barrier
arrangement with Commander, unusual, signal is Nick, difficulty is the Wife, bedroom or sitting room, sometimes can't make it, sometime SJ is out, visiting sick Wife, HM's and Marthas can't get sick, Wives take turns
first time she met with Commander, confusion, expecting something sexual, disappointing, Scrabble also a violation, opaque, something to bargain, Commander doesn't even understand what he wants
second visit, began same as first, two games of Scrabble, struggling to remember how to read/spell, patient - Commander let her win last time, present, magazine, extinct animal, used to take them lightly, really wanting it, endless possibility, immortality, test, taboo dissolved, reading it, why Offred? "Who else could I show it to?", Wife doesn't understand
third visit, asking for hand lotion, using butter, slap, afraid SJ will find out, past experience?
fourth visit, receiving hand lotion, nowhere to keep it, room searches, Commander ignorant? watching her apply it