Summary

In Chapter 20, Linda had a job at a barge company in Minneapolis. Though she was technically a temporary employee, she had her own office and was the one person who could calm the anxious wives of the barge deckhands. One day she got a call from a woman from Loose River who said Linda's mother was living in deplorable conditions in a dilapidated shed because the cabin roof had blown away.

Linda attended a Christian Science church service one Wednesday night after fortifying herself with liquor. She left with the idea that “Heaven and hell are ways of thinking,” and that “Death is the false belief that anything could ever end” (Location 3186). After a sermon, a woman claimed that she had a toothache that went away after she gave a pot of tulips to a woman who had been rude to her. Another...