Chapter 7 Summary

"About Holes and Things"

"About Holes and Things" is a return by Crick to that pivotal summer of 1943. At age 15, Mary Metcalfe is an adolescent girl, educated at a Catholic school, who is becoming curious about her sexuality. A group of young people, including Mary, Freddie Parr, Tom Crick and others, engage from time to time in the sexual banter of adolescents, as they gather during summer days on the banks of the Leem.

Tom Crick and Mary have something in common - each has a mother who is dead.

Crick tells of the sexual explorations in which he engaged with Mary that summer - he recounts that talk of "holes" and the use of his "thing," and the voracity of both Mary and the acts themselves. It is evident that not only does Mary engage in a regular sexual rendezvous with Tom...