Summary

In “Voices,” Alison’s audio diary finally arrives. Claire opens the package “with trembling hands” (169). As she listens to her sister’s candid commentary on her sex life with her boyfriend, her dislike of most of her school activities, and even her discontent with Claire as a sister, Claire begins to see how little she ever knew about Alison. What Claire notes most is that her sister, so apparently cool and confident, was terrified that her life ahead, so full of promise, “won’t be what it can be” (170). As she listens, Claire finds herself returning to her old habit, that “old, prickling feeling” (175), of tracing letters in the air. Claire, now bonding with her sister at an entirely new level and determined to expose Clive as Alison’s killer, decides to approach him at Little Sweet. After reintroducing herself as the woman...