Beautiful Ruins

The Deane Party (Michael Deane, Claire, Shane, and Pasquale) flies to Spokane, Washington and meets with Alan, a private investigator. Alan shows the group a file filled with documents related to Debra and says that Debra runs a theater in Sandpoint that will be putting on a show that night. Pasquale finds Alvis’s obituary amongst the documents in Alan’s file and expresses sorrow.

The Deane Party reaches Sandpoint and sees “Front Man,” a play Lydia, Pat’s ex-girlfriend, wrote about her relationship with him. The play takes place between 2005 and 2008 and features Pat, who plays himself. Lydia and Dee appear in the play only as characters played by other actors. In the first scene, Lydia catches Pat cheating on her while she tries to mend their broken relationship. The curtain closes at the end of the scene, and an enraptured Claire cannot deny that “Pat Bender is some kind of force onstage” (295).

The play continues as Pat and Lydia live separate lives after a breakup. Pat “spends three drunken years in the wilderness, trying to tame his demons” (295) while Lydia cares for her aging stepfather and Debra. Pat and Lydia’s path cross again when Pat calls her from London and begs for help.