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Anne Cassidy

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2004

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 1, Chapters 5-7

Part 1, Chapters 8-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-13

Part 2, Chapters 14-16

Part 2, Chapters 17-19

Part 3, Chapters 20-22

Part 3, Chapters 23-26

Part 4

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 3, Chapters 20-22Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3: “Alice Tully”

Part 3, Chapter 20 Summary

Back in the present, Alice is on her way to visit Frankie in Brighton. Rosie and Alice walk to the door and are greeted by Frankie’s sister Sophie, followed by Frankie and his mother and father. They all go and sit in the garden while Sophie makes tea. Sophie comes out with tea and sandwiches, and they eat and talk. Frankie’s mother shows Alice upstairs and gives her a gift of a white lace nightgown. Alice learns that Sophie is 10, almost 11. Rosie leaves to drive back home.

Frankie takes her on a tour of his loft. Alice reflects that she’s wanted to have sex with him since she met him and thinks that she’s ready now. Because she knows that Sara the reporter will publish the story about her new life in a matter of weeks, she is trying to “fit a lot of things into a small amount of time” (236). Frankie stops before they have sex, voicing fears that he is worried he might hurt her because she’s a virgin.

Sophie comes and knocks on the door, interrupting them. Later that night, the family all has dinner together. After dinner, Frankie and Alice are left alone on the patio. Alice thinks back to the discussions and deals of the past couple weeks. The newspaper has agreed not to publish Alice’s name and whereabouts, as long as Alice gives an interview to the paper telling her side of the story. Breaking into her thoughts, Sophie invites the two of them to come in and play charades.

Part 3, Chapter 21 Summary

As Alice lies in bed that night, Frankie comes to visit her. He says that his family loves her and seems happy. Caught up in thought, she asks Frankie what he would think if she had done something bad when she was younger. He reassures her that he loves her, and he goes back to bed.

Alice thinks back to the fateful day, after she hit Michelle. She takes the bat and runs, hiding it by the lake shore. She comes back to Michelle’s body and drags her into the hole that the tin box had occupied. She covers the body with branches and walks away. She finds Lucy on a swing in Michelle’s yard and takes her into the house to wash up. Jennifer tells Lucy that they shouldn’t tell anyone that they went to the lake. Mrs. Livingstone comes to pick up Lucy, and they tell her that Michelle got in an argument with them and wandered off. Carol comes home later that evening and says that Michelle’s mother wants to speak with her. Jennifer thinks about telling Carol about the accident but realizes that she “couldn’t tell her mum anything” (252).

That morning at Frankie’s house, Sophie wakes her up and brings her tea.

Part 3, Chapter 22 Summary

Two days later, Frankie and Alice go for a walk up on the downs. Frankie is irritable and reveals that he is worried about her going off to college in a few months. Frankie has been acting “desperately possessive” (256) and would prefer her to go to the same school as him. They get into an argument on the trail, and she insists that she wants to go to her own school. Alice wonders, “Why was it like that with people? You got close to them. You began to love them. Then they let you down” (259).

Walking away from Frankie, Alice thinks back to the day of Michelle’s death. That night, the police search for Michelle, and Michelle’s parents are worried. Later, Jennifer and her mother go back home and go to bed. In the morning, Jennifer sees on the television that they’re searching the reservoir; later that day, men come to get Jennifer after Lucy tells the truth. Jennifer leads them to the reservoir along with Lucy and Michelle’s parents, but Michelle’s body is no longer where she left it. Instead, it is a few feet away. One of the police officers spies it and tries to keep Jennifer and Lucy away from it, but she steals a look.

Frankie catches up to Alice, and they make up and have sex on the hilltop.

Part 3, Chapters 20-22 Analysis

Back in the present, Alice gets a glimpse of a normal, healthy family life in the form of Frankie, his sister, and his parents. They live in a quaint seaside suburb, with a charming house and lovely backyard. While they may tease one another, Frankie and his family have warm and loving relationships with one another. In particular, Alice is introduced to a warm and loving maternal figure who plays games with her family and even buys Alice a nightgown as a welcoming gift. For Alice, this is something she never had growing up with her mother or in Monksgrove. While she is grateful to spend time with the family, she is also troubled by her own identity and her past. The disjunction between Alice and Jennifer is uncomfortable for her, even when she is otherwise happy. The theme of identity, guilt, and change is highlighted as Alice questions Frankie about what he would think about her if he learned that she had done something terrible.

These passages also continue the storyline of the novel after Michelle’s murder. Rather than confess to the murder, Jennifer covers Michelle’s body with branches and asks Lucy not to tell anyone where they were that day; these actions further incriminate Jennifer. However, Jennifer insists that there is no one safe to tell, as there is no stable adult figure in her life in whom she might confide. She tries to pretend the murder never happened, feigning innocence and ignorance.

In these chapters, Alice also becomes sexually active for the first time. Now that she can escape the baggage of her mother and her past, Alice can engage in a happy, relatively healthy romantic relationship with another person. The sexual activity portrayed between Alice and Frankie is immature but sweet, a sharp contrast to Carol’s seedy and potentially dangerous sexual activity. Alice appears to finally escape the shadow of her past and embark on a new course.