Part 2 Summary

It is a Sunday afternoon. Sissie and her family are again at the boathouse. The maturity in Sissie's narration indicates that some time has passed. Sissie's mother is home with a new baby and her brother Frank is off with friends, so it is only she and Jerry who wait by the water for their father.

Jerry is 12 now and has pimples. He is whining for his father to hurry, though his father cannot hear him. Sissie describes the flies that hover around the sticky mess left on the tables. She tells Jerry that it won't be long now, trying to pacify him. They can see their father chatting animatedly with a fat bartender.

Jerry angrily announces that he hates his father because all he does is drink. Sissie remembers how Jerry got in trouble in school a month before. She admits that...