Stone Mattress

Wilma lives at the nursing home Ambrosia Manor, where she spends most of her days with her companion, Tobias. “Torching the Dusties” gets its title because Wilma sees dust bunnies almost anywhere—in her room and in the dining room where she eats lunch and dinner. She then personifies them: “The little people twirl about […] the skirt of the women billowing. They’re in a good mood today: they nod at one another, they smile, they open and close their mouths as if they’re speaking” (241). Wilma knows that the dusties are only in her imagination. When she discusses the hallucinations with her doctor, they both agree that the dusties are harmless, as they are never angry or spiteful.

As Wilma loses her sight to macular degeneration, she relies on Tobias not only for companionship but for his descriptions of what is going on around them. There have been protesters gathering outside their nursing home. When Wilma listens to the television news, she finds out that these protesters are part of a movement called “Our Turn.” The people participating in the movement are angry at the elderly for the world they left to the younger generation.