Summary

As the third section begins, the reader finds Josephine in the early stages of trying to write the novel for her sister. Iris had purchased a laptop for her so that she could work more efficiently. She dealt with writer's block as she stared at the blank screen and mentally ran through all the possibilities for characters, names, story lines and settings. Her mind was preoccupied with how to write the novel while trying to pay the bills and take care of the girls. One afternoon, she got some money out of her purse for Hortense and the magazine photo of the man from the library, Duffel Coat Man, fell to the floor. She decided to write him into her story too. At night she watched the stars from the balcony and remembered her father telling her how important she was to the...