Summary

In Chapter 26, the students prepared to leave Terhofstede as rain began to roll in across the countryside. Laura recalled that, although she had gone to bed early the night before, she had barely slept. Her friends had played music and gotten drunk. They hadn’t come to bed until it was nearly light, with Stella and Herman ending up together in Lodewijk’s single room. Laura, still pretending to be asleep, had cried and cursed herself to sleep. As they were packing later, no one had acted like anything unusual had happened. Laura had watched carefully for blushes or signs of embarrassment or smugness. Herman stopped Laura before they left and showed her the cup of her mother's that he had broken, which he had carefully glued back together. While waiting for the bus, Herman realized that it ran only every three hours...