Summary

In this section of the novel the timeline advances about ten years but the narration remains in the past tense. At this point in her life, Alice was working at Theodora Liess Elementary School as a librarian. She made a goal for herself that if she was not married by the time she was thirty, she would buy a house. Her plan was derailed when her father died of a heart attack two months before Alice’s birthday. Because she spent many of her weekends driving home to be with her mother and grandmother, Alice did not begin her house search until more than one year later.

Alice noted that her relator, Nadine Patora, treated her better than she probably deserved. Alice wanted a place she loved, a house she found only after she had looked at more than...