Chapter 21 Summary

Susie visits Ray and admits that she cannot to leave him as much as she will not leave her family. Ray is still special to her because he was her first love. Susie recalls the conversation between her and Grandma Lynn about Susie's first kiss. Abigail had picked up the line, but then let her mother finish the conversation. Lynn told Susie that the man she first kissed was a friend of her father's.

Ruth, who is now home, visits Ray, where they discuss the filling in of the sinkhole for the building of a new subdivision. Ruth's father feels that a new subdivision may crowd out the family's house. The sinkhole will be filled with four blocks thrown into the hole with concrete and grout to fill the cracks. A newspaper article compares the hole to a throat.

Ruth and Ray drive...