Summary

While Flora takes a bath at the beginning of Chapter 11, she hears someone step on the creaky floorboard in the beach house kitchen. Expecting her mother to have caused the noise, Flora begins screaming, only to find Nan was the culprit all along. Nan makes tea, and the two sisters discuss their father’s health following his accident. Before Nan goes to bed, Flora explains that she abandoned Richard’s car on Ferry Road after it refused to restart during the rainstorm. Nan decides that the Morris Minor can wait until the next morning, and Flora agrees. As the two sisters attempt to fall asleep in their shared bedroom, Flora asks Nan about a man named Gabriel. Nan asks not to discuss him and Flora changes the subject. She and Nan reminisce about their youth when Flora found a life-sized plastic whale’s head...