A History Of Wild Places

Theo wakes beside his wife, Calla, after struggling to sleep the previous night. He lies rather than telling her what prevented him from sleeping because she “doesn’t like it when I talk about the outside” (45). He meditates on their love, as well as the lies they tell each other. She tells him she’s planning to meet her sister in the orchard and departs.

Gathering hazelnuts with her blind sister, Bee, Calla expresses her worry about Theo seeming different. Bee reassures her but asks if she thinks Theo wants to leave. Calla tries not to think about that prospect. Rain begins, and they hurry inside, worried that the “rot”—a deeply feared illness in the community—could be transmitted by the rain.

Bee meditates on the differences between herself and her sister, Calla. Bee wants to stay out in the rain while Calla wants to run from it, and Bee holds on to memories of their parents while Calla represses them, angry at them for dying young. She goes into an infrequently used area of the house that used to be a sunroom. It housed outsiders who came to Pastoral before it was decided whether they could stay.