Safe Haven

Jo comes over to Katie’s cottage Sunday night with a bottle of wine. Katie grows tipsy from the alcohol, and Jo pushes her to talk about her past. Katie tells Jo a story about a friend who met a man in Atlantic City. The man saved her from two attackers. They went out the next day, and the friend believed the man was kind: “He treated her like a princess, right up until she was on her honeymoon” (64). However, the man was cruel, controlling and beating his wife. The friend tried to run away twice but ended up going back the first time because she had nowhere to go; he found her the second time and dragged her back home. On that occasion, he held a gun to her head and promised to kill her if she ever left again. The friend began stealing money from his wallet, “never more than a dollar or two, because otherwise he would notice” (65). The friend knew she had to get away and start over. Jo says the friend has courage, but Katie insists she is afraid all the time. When Jo gets up to leave an hour later, she notices a