Summary

In another recounting of a childhood memory, John revisits the time before his mother’s death. He remembers a dressmaker’s dummy she kept next to her bed and dressed in various outfits. Tabby possessed expert sewing skills and often bought clothes while in Boston, copied them, and then returned them. After her death, John and Dan often mistake the dummy for Tabby. John and Owen dress the dummy in Tabby’s clothing; Owen frequently reconstructs actual outfits that Tabby wears. However, no one can convince her to wear a beautiful red dress (the only non-white or black outfit in her closet) in the back of her closet. She wears the dress once, during a production of Angel Street that Dan directs; Tabby played a wife driven mad by her evil husband. During a sleepover and John’s house, Owen wakes up with a fever. He...