The Break

Rain contemplates her existence as a spirit. She thinks about what it means to not have a body, and she discovers that while she may not miss her own physical body, she misses the “feel of someone else’s skin” (157). She focuses on Stella as a child and how they slept together in the same bed. She misses her mother and craves to hold her hands. Rain, then, compares her body to a memory and how death feels like existing in a memory.

Stella wakes up, and she thinks about how her dreams are memories from her childhood. She spends her morning with her children, and the police come to inform Stella that they believe they have found the survivor of the attack and want to talk to her again. After talking to Officer Scott and Christie again, she tries to call Kookom, but she does not answer. As the day goes on, Stella further thinks about her dream, which replays the memory of a man following her, Lou, and Paulina when they were out for a walk as children. She remembers being scared and having to run home to get away from his car.