Summary

Chapter 3 returns to the end of summer in 1976 as Cricket, James and Will play in the yard for one last day before school begins for the fall. Cricket reads a women’s magazine and experiences shame, while her uncomprehending younger brothers beg her to play. Cricket dominates their playacting, deciding the scenarios they will imagine. At the same time, Edgar calls Fern and tells her to prepare for “sort of” a double date (53). She cannot decide what to wear and emerges in the blue dress she had been wearing when they first danced together more than a decade before. Fern reflects on aging, knowing that outside Cricket reads a women’s magazine as part of her play, and recognizing that her daughter will grow and change and learn self-doubt. Next to Fern, the old dog falls asleep, and her vulnerability and age remind Fern...