Summary

Terry Keating and McNamara meet in Oak Park, Chicago. Terry is an old friend of hers from high school. He meets her to talk about the events that led to him finding a woman's dead body when they were teenagers. McNamara talks about her upbringing and her family's history. She describes how her parents met, and that his father worked for a firm. She explains that her relationship with her mother was always fraught. Nevertheless, her mother tries to find ways to encourage McNamara to become a writer, without her having to end up "writing greeting cards" (38). On the night before her wedding, McNamara hears her mother asking someone if it is too late for McNamara's career as a writer. McNamara tells her mother to get away from her, and her mother is devastated. They make amends later, when her...