Chapter 17 Summary

Forty-eight hours after Sheba says her last angry word to Barbara, Barbara returns to the house to find Sheba holed up in her room. Sheba has taken the manuscript with her, and she is refusing to come out. Sheba does not want to talk to Barbara or eat anything Barbara has prepared. She only comes out of her room to use the bathroom or make something to eat when Barbara has gone to bed. Barbara wakes to the sound of Sheba crying, or actually howling. She wonders if she should call Richard, but Sheba eventually stops sometime around dawn.

Barbara spends the next few days dusting and cleaning. She has begun to love Eddie's house. She says that the time she has spent there has been sad but that it was also intense and wonderful. Mrs. Taylor calls to tell them that she...