Karen and Graham's affair

Karen and Graham's affair is a concealed relationship whose stakes change when Karen realizes in Seattle that she is pregnant. The discovery turns a private encounter into a crisis she must face alone, while the retrospective accounts preserve both the intimacy of the relationship and the uncertainty surrounding what others knew.

Secrecy and Retrospective Accounts

Karen places her realization in Seattle, during the band's travels. Eddie later recalls suspecting that she and Graham were sleeping together, but says he never raised it with them and sometimes wondered whether he had imagined it. He could not determine whether their relationship had been a one-time occurrence. His uncertainty contrasts with Karen's direct account: the affair was real, but it remained largely unspoken among the people around them.

The Seattle Realization

In Karen's memory, Graham entered her hotel room from the adjoining room while she was showering, and she drew him close. She noticed that her breasts felt swollen and sore, and understood that she was pregnant. At twenty-nine, she trusted her knowledge of her own body; what she had previously dismissed as an intuition women described now felt certain to her. The realization arrived in the middle of an intimate moment, without a conversation or preparation.

Immediate Aftermath and Significance

Karen describes the discovery as a spreading dread and recalls feeling relieved when Warren knocked at Graham's door and Graham left. Alone, she remained under the showerhead, unable to get out until she had gathered enough energy to do so. Graham's recollection offers a separate, incomplete perspective: he remembers sensing that someone he loved was not all right, though she appeared fine and he could not identify the cause. Together, their accounts show the pregnancy as a turning point held first in Karen's private knowledge, while the affair itself remained difficult for others to confirm.