Summary

Michigan – Cat describes the first few weeks of her family’s new life in Silver Lake – her wandering through the woods, getting used to smoking; her unexpected meeting with a man apparently keeping a secret in an abandoned railcar there; and the man, whom Cat identifies as Marlena’s dad, later coming around to try and be helpful to her mother, despite being almost struck dumb by her beauty. “For a teenage girl,” Cat comments, “a beautiful mother is a uniquely painful curse” (24). Cat also describes the first visit made to her home by Marlena, who initially found Cat’s room to be something of a jail and then, moments later, brought some leftover paint and some music. Together, Cat says, she and Marlena sang through the same CD three times and painted her room, Cat in a geometric pattern of squares...