Book 1, Chapter 6 Summary

When Sophie arrives at the airport, she is met by a woman who looks very little like the woman in the picture on Tante Atie's night table. This woman's face is not laughing; it is long and hollow and there are dark circles under her eyes. Nevertheless, she is cheerful and friendly. She spins Sophie around in the air and looks at her face.

They get into Sophie's mother's car—a pale yellow thing with cracks in the windows and springs sticking out of the seats. Her mother straps Sophie in and begins to drive. She asks Sophie if her sister is still in night school. When Sophie tells her Atie never started it, her mother comments that she must have lost her nerve. When they were young, her mother says, they dreamed of becoming important women. Then she asks after...