Summary

It is 2018, and Bess knows immediately that it is Joni at her door even before she answers it. She remembers how animalistic their friendship was. Since their friendship ceased, Joni has become a television “rent-apersonality” (1). They have not seen each other since they were teens, and Joni thinks Bess has “retired[d] to the desert” (1). Joni tells her old friend that she needs help, and Bess remembers a third friend of theirs, Evangeline, and how her head was found at an unnatural angle ten years ago.

In Chapter 2, there is a saguaro cactus growing through Bess’s house which Joni describes as phallic. Bess’s house is much smaller than the McMansions both girls spent their childhoods in. Bess lives alone. Joni tells her that she has come because of her fiance, activist influencer, Willa Bailey. Bess knows who this is because...