Summary

Three – The next morning, Naomi and Sam go out for coffee and breakfast, where they talk about boyfriends (Naomi does not have one, and Sam has one that she is not thinking about). Later, they go down to the beach and sunbathe while waiting for Naomi’s drug dealer, a young woman who eventually arrives by boat and, in spite of reacting suspiciously to the newcomer (Sam), replenishes Naomi’s supply which she, in turn, gives to Sam before they go their separate ways. At home, Naomi learns from Carissa that Phaine is in a bad mood, narration commenting on how “the intruder had carefully expunged all traces of her dead mother and replaced their former warmth and coziness with her own chilly taste” (32).

At dinner, Naomi is confronted by Jimmie and Phaine about her silence on the subject of what happened...