Still immured in shifting phantasms of the familiar and reassuring past, Offred sees herself as a mother with her child and also as a child with her mother. To compose her muddled brain, Offred recites litanies, mental gymnastics that exercise her numbed thinking processes. As she ponders the second of the two eggs that she is served for breakfast, she responds instantly to the arrival of the red Birthmobile, the Handmaids’ transportation to the birthing chamber of Ofwarren. By separate conveyance, Wives arrive to attend the Commander’s Wife, who lies in a downstairs room while Ofwarren and her attendants occupy the master bedroom.
Offred recalls indoctrination sessions with Aunt Lydia and conflicting memories of Offred’s mother, an aggressive feminist who supported abortion rights. The primitive tableau of a birthing scene advances from contractions to transition as the baby descends to the birth canal. At the crucial moment, Ofwarren climbs onto the Birthing Stool, a two-seater that accommodates the Commander’s Wife behind her. A girl-baby emerges and is quickly washed and passed to the surrogate mother, who names the child Angela.
Emotionally wrung out and exuding sympathetic milk from her breasts, Offred returns home by van in late afternoon. She reverts to the third-hand story of Moira, the gutsy rebel who dismantled a toilet-flushing mechanism and used its metal arm to intimidate Aunt Elizabeth, her hostage. By forcing her victim into the furnace room and exchanging her red clothes for the Aunt’s khaki outfit, Moira escaped undetected, leaving Aunt Elizabeth for seven hours before the authorities discovered Moira’s escape. While investigating, Aunt Lydia urges Janine, a willing stooge, to stay alert for information from the other inmates.
Keeping Moira before her as a model of courage, Offred intends to escape. She is awakened the next morning by Cora, a barren lover of children who hopes that Angela’s birth is a good omen for Offred and the Commander’s family. At nine that night, Offred breaks rules and enters the Commander’s office and joins him in a game of Scrabble. To her, the illicit tryst is a bargaining session, from which she may obtain some concession. Before she leaves, he requests a sincere kiss.
