Summary

33. Back in first person narration, Joy describes a series of memories and thoughts (“It was never my mother in the tunnel. It was always him” (244)) that come to her as she returns to consciousness in the woods outside the Mansion. She calms herself by thinking of Marcus and of the little yellow bird near her. She realizes that she has a choice – to accept what she has remembered and learn to live with it, or to bury what has been remembered and disappear inside oneself.

34. When a raccoon gets caught in a trap door under the floor, Nelson is determined to use it for scientific experimentation. As Joy and Marcus try to talk him out of it, Darcie has another memory, of being held in a basement. The question of what to do is not resolved, and the four spend the rest...