The Drowning Woman

Lee and Hazel talk on the beach. Hazel says that she sold some jewelry for money and found someone to make them fake passports. She plans to escape to Panama.

Lee finds a pawnshop to sell the netsuke. The proprietor offers her $200 but tells her that she could likely get more from a collector. She leaves and sees Hazel exiting an oyster bar with two other women. Hazel speaks to Lee with pity, as if she’s a stranger, and gives her $50 for lunch.

Offended by Hazel’s behavior in front of her friends, Lee doesn’t return to the beach for several days. Jesse comes into the diner again, and she suggests a movie at his place. They discuss her falling-out with Hazel, and he suggests that it may have been a defense mechanism. They have sex.