Summary

Chapter 22 opens with the narrator describing that Maureen had set the old brothel on fire “for Robbie and for young Georgie” because she wanted “to test the hypothesis” of the vagrant she met by the Laundry, that “there was nothing as cleansing as a good fire” (295).

Maureen then decides to join a cult of “ex-believers,” calling herself “Mo Looney, wife to the man Dominic Looney would have been” (296). While there, she meets Saskia, a woman who had been in the CAIL mission and had left soon after Georgie; through Saskia, Maureen learns what happened to Georgie’s baby. Maureen explains, “I thought I needed a confessor,” but has since realized that “there’s nothing there […] just actions to be burned away” (299).

The narrative then switches to focus on Ryan, who is about to leave for Electric Picnic, a music festival...