Chapters 39 through Five Years Later Summary

In chapter thirty-nine, Jem arrives at the beach with Karen and Val. They have Spider's ashes and plan to scatter them in the ocean. Jem says she spent time in the hospital after Spider's death. They'd had the cremation without Jem because it'd been a long time before she was capable of interacting with anyone. On the day they scatter Spider's ashes, Jem feels the fluttering of a child growing inside her and says she's "pretty sure" it's a boy.

In the final chapter, "Five Years Later", Jem says she no longer hangs around the places kids go. These days she has a child to care for and all her time is caught up in that endeavor. She says she hadn't had the horror of looking into her child's eyes and seeing the date of...