After the war, a cloak descends over Johanna's frame, something akin to loneliness.

Before, she could live purely out of spite. Now, there is nothing. Nothing but morphine.

The emptiness is felt in the marrow of her bones, sucked dry.

Gale is five years too late to love. And he feels that in his stomach, the way it's hungry even when it's full.

He meets Johanna, really, for the first time, when he demands a shot of morphine. Anything to stop this.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

He calls her selfish; she calls him crazy. They have a conversation instead.