Summary

The narrative returns to 2007 and Vanessa’s senior year in college. It is now spring term. She cannot find any interest in making plans for after graduation. She drinks excessively. She sleeps late into the morning. She ignores Strane’s repeated phone calls. He is, she knows, caught up in the school’s ongoing investigation in his behavior, and Vanessa knows that her silence hurts him. She focuses on Henry Plough. She lingers in his office, gives off every signal that she wants him to make a move. She craves the feeling of being special. “I want to hear him call me funny, charming, brilliant, the best student he’s ever had” (321). He makes no move. She knows he is married but curious why he so carefully avoids mentioning his “friend” at Browick is, in fact, his wife. Vanessa takes this as a...