In this story by Paz Latorena, a woman living on an isolated Philippine farm yields to temptation when her husband leaves his coat at home. Inside a coat pocket is the key is to a small trunk containing the clothes of his deceased first wife. Consumed with jealousy and insecure in their relationship, she opens the trunk and burns the contents. The husband finds remnants of the clothing in the ashes of the fire, and readers are left to ponder what lasting damage the wife’s actions may have done to their marriage. Themes include emotional isolation, insecurity, jealousy, trust, betrayal.
