Part 2, 1945-1954, Chapter 9 Summary

Aisling thanks Elizabeth for sending a picture book for her nineteenth birthday and complains that nothing seems different as she had hoped. She is watching for alternatives to Barrett. Both want the other to write in detail about their lives. Elizabeth writes candidly about Stone respecting her after sex, about no one noticing her loss of virginity except Worsky, and about growing conflicts with her father. She pictures how Eileen would condemn her actions, but decides that at nineteen she is beyond old-fashioned Catholic views. Elizabeth refuses to force Stone into a commitment, which complicates visiting Kilgarret as he suggests. Sex becomes routine for them. When he refuses to attend her father's birthday party and declares that one need not always do what others want, she sees that he will never meet her half-way.

Aisling brings O'Connor's Hardware around...