While at work, Brad reminisces about their life together—their trip to Nassau, their struggle with infertility due to Ellen's heart condition, and a moment on a plane where he briefly feared she was dead.
Interspersed with these domestic scenes are fragments of Brad’s troubling memories: a violent argument with a stranger in a parking garage, a broken lamp, a missing cat, and the couple’s recent vacation to Maine. Over the course of the narrative, the reader slowly realizes the horrifying truth: . She has been dead for several days. Brad has been carrying around, washing, and speaking to her corpse, completely dissociated from reality. The “under the weather” condition is his delusion. under the weather stephen king
The "illness" Brad described was actually the process of decomposition. The smell, which he claimed was from the building's plumbing or "mustiness," was the smell of the rotting body. His weight loss and haggard appearance are not from stress, but because he has been refusing to leave the apartment or function normally, trapped in a delusion where he is still caring for his living wife. The story ends with the grim implication that Brad is living with a corpse, completely disconnected from reality. While at work, Brad reminisces about their life
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The climax occurs when Brad’s boss, , arrives for a long-scheduled dinner. Frank discovers the rotting body. Brad, still in denial, asks if Frank has seen their cat. The story ends with Brad’s final, fragile rationalization: Tess is just very sick, and tomorrow she’ll feel better. She has been dead for several days
"The day was gray and cold, a sick mist that crept in off the water and clung to everything it touched."