Chapter 24 Summary

Reta writes another letter in this chapter, the third in the series. On December 2, 2000 she writes to Dennis Ford-Halpern after she had finished reading his book, "The Goodness Gap." She chides him for failing to mention the contributions of any women and calls this omission "a moral dilemma in itself." Her loss of Norah comes to the forefront once again as she writes this letter; Reta has a compulsion to write about the heartbreak and anguish Norah has caused her to suffer. She describes her daughter as alienated from family and society and echoes Danielle's sentiment that Norah cannot help but react in this manner. She is a woman in a universe that ignores her existence. She describes Norah's world as one in which all she can see "is an endless series of obstacles, an alignment of locked doors." Since she wants to...