Family of Liars

Carrie and Yardley help Tipper clean up after dinner one night and then head to Goose Cottage to meet up with the boys. On their way there, they run into Harris and Dean, who seem engaged in a tense conversation. Harris reaches out and touches Yardley on the shoulder, saying only “Done” (168), and then continues to walk to the house. Dean begs Yardley to talk to him, but she refuses and walks past him. When Yardley and Carrie are out of earshot, she asks Yardley what happened. Yardley suggests they stay outside Goose Cottage a moment longer so that she can tell her why she is angry with her father, but then points and says, “Oh no” (169).

Carrie turns to look at what Yardley sees, and it is Pfeff and Penny, standing outside Goose Cottage, kissing. Yardley calls out to them, startling them, and Penny and Pfeff jump apart. Carrie feels enraged as “a ball of hot fury and pain barrels into [her] head and pushes out through [her] skin” (170). Carrie flees, thinking how prettier Penny is than her and how everyone loves Penny best because of her appearance. Carrie feels that she could “hack off my own heel with a butcher knife (I have hacked up my mouth already); but it would not be enough to win me love” (171) because Penny is the Cinderella in their situation, her foot fitting perfectly into the blood-soaked slipper.