Summary

In “Repose,” Eileen’s mother died when Saoirse was 15. Saoirse saw Eileen’s childhood home for the first time at the funeral. Eileen said the property was called Dirt Island “because everyone was jealous of it” (49). The farm was located on an island “in the middle of a small lake” (49). Saoirse overheard the family’s conversations. Eileen’s father had not told her her mother was sick.

In “Island,” after the ceremony, Richard took Saoirse outside. He told her about the game he and Eileen used to play, battling to be “king and queen of that island” (51). Then he said Eileen had broken their parents’ hearts because she was “a whore” (52). He told Saoirse she would never “see this place again” (52).

In “Weakness,” the neighbor Kit Gladney found Nana collapsed in the grass. She summoned Ellen Jackman and Doctor Harvey. “She’d...