Cathedral

The narrator is unhappy and annoyed because his wife invites an old friend who is blind to visit. She met the man ten years ago when she was engaged to her first husband, an Air Force officer. The narrator notes with irritation that the blind man asked to feel her face. It bothers him that the moment was so significant to his wife that she wrote a poem about the experience. When the narrator’s wife married her first husband, they moved away. She was miserable as a military wife and attempted suicide. Her first husband called for an ambulance and saved her life, but they had eventually divorced, and she had met the narrator. Throughout all of this, she exchanged audio tapes with the narrator.

The narrator’s wife says that if he loves her, he will welcome her friend. She tells him about the blind man’s late wife, Beulah. They fell in love and married, but she died of cancer after eight years. The narrator is appalled at the idea of a woman whose husband can’t even compliment her on her appearance. He wonders if Beulah’s last thought was that her husband had never even seen her face. The narrator’s wife goes to pick the blind man up at the train station and introduces him to her husband as Robert.