This short story, in the voice of a woman who's lost probably 200 pounds, traces her evolution from an obese woman without self-respect to a skeletal woman who supposedly is in control of her life, but is essentially suicidal. The opening scene of mechanical, indifferent sex immediately introduces that theme. Clearly a sexual frustration has been involved in the narrator's obesity. When her husband finally leaves her alone, she is gaunt--her secret for making him stop having sex with her. She seems depressed and wants to vanish in the water.