The short story is about Mary Maloney, a young woman who's waiting for her husband, the policeman Patrick Maloney, to come home from work. There is a smiling air about her and about everything she does. She's pregnant and this is now the sixth month with child. At five o'clock she hears his husband coming home. Mary goes forward to kiss him when he enters. For her, this is the most blissful time of day. She gives him his first drink and they sit down. Mary really loves him. She ever tries to be an excellent wife. Mary does everything for him. But today, Patrick Maloney isn't in a good mood. He really wants to tell her something very important. He also says that this is going to be a bit of a shock for her. But he's decided to tell her the truth. He tells her everything. After, she watches him with a kind of dazed horror. (Although the reader doesn't know what they're talking about, the atmosphere of the story is changing.)
             First she doesn't believe it. She hopes it would only be a bad dream, but she realizes he was telling her the truth.
             Mary wants to change her thoughts. She promises him to prepare supper. Mary takes a leg of lamb from the deep freeze, then she walks up behind her husband and without any pause, she swings the big frozen leg on the back of his head. He crashes down the carpet. She realizes that she has just killed him.
             Suddenly, she places the leg in a pan and turns the oven on high. Mary's thinking about how to act now. To have a believable alibi, she goes to the groceries and buys some vegetables and some cheesecake. She tries to seem very happy to the shopkeeper. At home, she's acting as her husband were alive. But when she sees him lying on the floor, it's rather a shock because all the old love and longing for him wells up inside her. She begins to cry her heart out. A few minutes later, Mary calls the police. They come very quic
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