Morality

Chad Callahan, a substitute teacher in New York City's public schools, comes home one afternoon to find his wife Nora sitting on the fire escape with their financial documents and an e-mail from his literary agent. Normally Chad has dinner ready before Nora returns at six from her home-nursing job caring for Reverend George Winston, a retired minister recovering from a stroke whom she calls Winnie.

The couple's finances are grim. Their file folder, which Chad has jokingly labeled THE RED AND THE BLACK, reveals mounting debt. They once talked about having a child but now talk only about escaping to Vermont. Chad's position at P.S. 321 is temporary, and a city hiring freeze offers no prospect of a permanent role. Between assignments, he wrote three chapters of a book called Living with the Animals: The Life of a Substitute Teacher in Four City Schools. His agent, Edward Ringling, praised the 80 pages but advised him to finish before trying to sell the manuscript. Chad estimates a completed book could bring an advance around $100,000, but the mental drain of teaching has left him unable to add a page since May.

Nora tells Chad that Winnie sent her home early to consider a proposition involving more than $100,000. She recounts what happened in Winnie's study. The minister offered her $200,000 in cash. He explained that he grew up wealthy on Long Island, inherited roughly $15 million, and converted a portion into cash kept in a Manhattan safe-deposit box. Winnie described a life of unremarkable service and said his one regret is that he has never committed a major sin of deed. Now, physically limited by his stroke, he wants to sin by proxy through Nora, doubling his transgression by making her an accessory. Nora told him she does not believe in sin. Winnie replied that sin believes in her.

That night, Chad and Nora lie awake deliberating, cycling from refusal to rationalization. Nora says she would do it for them if she were not afraid it would permanently taint their lives. Chad declares the subject closed, but neither can sleep. Practical calculation takes over: Nora observes she would need nearly three years to earn that sum legitimately, and after taxes and debt nothing would remain. She sets conditions: They can never speak of it afterward. Before falling asleep, she mentions Winnie wants the act videotaped. Chad says he can borrow a camera from a friend named Charlie Green.

Nora returns to Winnie's study, recalling a Vacation Bible School story about the devil tempting Jesus. She asks him to confirm she would not have to seriously hurt anyone. He specifies that he expects to see blood: a cut lip or bloody nose delivered by her fist will suffice. He assures her that even if caught, the worst outcome would be probation. Nora notices with dismay that part of her is still curious, not about what Winnie wants but about what she herself wants. She accepts. Winnie replies, "Excellent."

They choose Forest Park in Queens. Chad borrows the camera, and they scout the park twice on rainy days. During the 10-day preparation, they have frequent, nervous sex, and Nora loses nine pounds. On a day in early October, Nora wears a disguise: red-dyed hair, sunglasses, and a Mets cap. She tells Chad to wait 15 minutes, then proceed to their spot with the camera. He briefly considers driving away but instead walks to the park. When Nora brushes her hair back, the prearranged signal, he raises the camera.

Back at the apartment, Nora demands to know whether the child, a boy of about four, is all right. Chad assures her the boy was standing and crying before the mothers on the playground reached him. They watch the roughly 30-second tape: Nora walking up to the child, punching him in the mouth hard enough to draw blood and possibly knock out a tooth, then sprinting away. They watch it five times, gradually shifting from concern for the child to fascination with the punch itself. Afterward, Nora leads Chad to the bedroom and demands he hit her during sex. He slaps her, then harder at her insistence, splitting her lip. She smears the blood on her fingers and climaxes.

The next day, Nora demands to see the money before playing the video for Winnie. He produces a Federal Express box stuffed with bundled hundreds. They watch the tape twice in silence. Winnie advises her to get another job so rapid debt repayment will not look suspicious, and not to leave for Vermont too soon. He mentions he will have his housekeeper, Mrs. Granger, buy him a camera for repeated viewings. Nora tells him she feels dirty. He asks whether feeling dirty is always a bad thing, noting that the second time the tape played, he watched her instead of it.

In the weeks that follow, damage accumulates. Winnie calls to suggest they watch the tape together; Nora refuses. She takes a job caring for Mrs. Reston, their upstairs neighbor, but during Mrs. Reston's monologues, Nora's hand sometimes itches to slap her. Chad reduces his subbing hours to finish the book but privately questions whether the new pages match the earlier ones. Twelve days after the park, a police officer named Abromowitz knocks on Nora's door canvassing about a neighborhood mugger. She feels giddy with relief, yet reflects that she is a mugger herself. That night, Nora demands Chad hit her during sex. He refuses; she slaps him; he hits her back. She cries, and he continues.

In January, they find a house about 20 miles outside Montpelier, Vermont. The real estate agent notices Nora's bruised eye; Nora blames ice. In February, while Chad is in Manhattan, Nora calls Officer Abromowitz, who comes over and has sex with her. She asks him to hit her; he refuses. She tells him she is still finding out what kind of person she is.

The day before their move, Mrs. Granger calls to say Winnie has died. The obituary will cite kidney failure, but Mrs. Granger suspects suicide. Nora's first thought is about the videotape. That night, she considers going to Winnie's house to search for it. Chad looks at her as if she is mad and rolls away. She hits him on the back of the neck. He turns, raises a fist, then lowers it: "No more." Nora thinks, "That's what you think."

Chad finishes Living with the Animals in July. After revisions requested by Ringling, the manuscript goes to publishers. In September, Chad returns from New York drunk with a $40,000 advance from a small publisher. Nora laughs and begins comparing the figure to what she earned per second during the tape. Chad punches her, breaking her nose. She sits up, bloody, feeling amazed, exhilarated, ashamed, and amused. She taunts him, claiming she has slept with a dozen men since the park, an exaggeration. He declares the book would have been fine if not for her and says he will leave and write a better one. She replies, "Pigs will whistle." He shuffles to bed, walking, she notices, like Winnie after his stroke. Nora stuffs cotton in her nostrils, takes painkillers, and weeds her garden until dark.

Chad returns to New York and resumes substitute teaching. His e-mails carry a washed-out quality suggesting the writing has stalled. He does not ask for his half of the remaining money; Nora would not have given it, feeling she earned it and is still earning it by feeding cash into the bank bit by bit to pay off the house. She handles the divorce herself using forms found online. Chad signs the papers and returns them with no note. The following summer, working full-time at the local hospital, Nora browses a used-book store and finds The Basis of Morality, the same title she noticed on Winnie's shelf. It takes her the rest of the summer and most of the fall to read. She is disappointed: There is little or nothing in it she does not already know.