The Keeper of Stars

After dinner that evening, Ellie and Amelia talk about the impact that Clara’s death has had on Marie. Ellie is surprised to see her usually stoic mother so down. Ellie confesses to Amelia that, contrary to what she told the family, she is the one who broke up with Jack. She explains that Marie was constantly urging her to forget about Jack and focus on school but that at first, this only made her more determined to be with Jack. When he came to visit in November of 1950, however, there was an incident that changed the dynamic of their relationship. 

The novel flashes back to Jack nervously getting ready for a party with Ellie’s friends. He is uncomfortable being dressed up in a suit, but she assures him that this is how people dress for parties in her social circle. Jack is not looking forward to being at a party with Mike, a member of Ellie’s social circle who has been romantically pursuing her for some time.

At the party, Mike tries to make Jack feel out of place by implying that Jack is a social burden to Ellie. Then, Mike taunts Jack that he will soon be drafted into the Korean War and will be out of the picture. Mike tells Jack that Ellie might be strong enough to handle their separation by the war, “[b]ut loyalty and strength don’t always go hand-in-hand” (180). Jack knocks Mike to the floor, and Jack and Ellie end up leaving the party. Ellie is furious at Jack for hitting Mike and will not listen to his explanation of his behavior. She tells him that he should not let people manipulate him into fighting. That night, Ellie does not stay in the hotel with Jack, deciding that she needs a little time to think about her feelings. When she goes to see him the next day, he is gone—and before they have a chance to talk over what happened, Jack receives his draft letter.

Back in the narrative present, Ellie tells Amelia that she did not share any of this with Amelia at the time because she was too depressed and ashamed to talk about it. Ellie cries in her sister’s arms, and Amelia tells her that she is relieved to see her expressing her emotions instead of trying to be stoic. She tells Ellie that at times, she has been afraid that Ellie will turn into their mother. They both laugh. Ellie shares with Amelia that when they were children, she always imagined that someday they would both be married mothers raising their children in the same town. Amelia says that Ellie can still make this happen but that she will have to reconsider her priorities first.

In the morning, Ellie drives to the docks, determined to find Jack. She sees a new fleet of more than a dozen boats labeled “J & G Charters” (185). She asks a man if he knows where Jack is, and the man tells her that Jack is his boss and owns the whole operation. He guesses that she is Ellie because Jack talks about her often. He explains that his name is Matthew Malone and that he and Jack served together in Korea. When Jack pulls up to the dock in his boat, Ellie is waiting. She asks if he has “room for one more” (187), echoing the first words she spoke to him in 1950. There is a pause, and then Jack tells her to climb aboard. They briefly catch up on their professional lives; Jack tells Ellie that when George died, he left Jack his business, and Jack has now built it up to what Ellie sees today. They both admit to being unmarried. As they pass places they associate with the summer of 1950, Jack’s feelings begin to resurface, despite his efforts to resist them. 

Ellie asks why he no longer has an East Tennessee accent, and he explains that he worked hard to lose it when he took advantage of a program for veterans to go to college and attended to study literature and linguistics. He asks why she didn’t call or write after she read his book, and she explains that she didn’t think he would want to talk to her. He tells her that he holds no grudge against her—when he came back from the war, he was suffering from combat fatigue, and he became so depressed that he ended up moving out West at his doctor’s suggestion. He met a woman whom he wanted to be with, but they broke up because she would not move back to Tennessee with him. This helped him understand Ellie’s decision to end their relationship. Ellie tells Jack that she is glad he got over her, but he tells her that she is misunderstanding him. The relationship with the other woman is evidence of him forcing himself to move on but not evidence that he is over Ellie—he still loves Ellie and always will.

After work, Jack goes to George’s grave to think. He tells George that, just as George predicted, Ellie has come back to Sims Chapel. He says that Ellie is more beautiful than ever but that she also looks sad. He wonders whether he should try to resume the relationship or if he should let it rest in the past; ultimately, he says that he will “let fate decide” (195). At home, Sara is waiting for Jack. The two are in a romantic relationship, and Sara questions him about whether he has seen Ellie since her return to town. Jack lies and says no. He tells her that he does not want to discuss Ellie and reassures her that he no longer harbors feelings for Ellie. 

The following morning, he suggests that, after Clara’s funeral, he and Sara go away to the mountains for a few days. That afternoon, Sara goes to Clara’s house to talk to Ellie. She tells Ellie that she knows she went to see Jack the previous day and asks whether Jack told her that Sara and Jack are a couple. Ellie is shocked, but she keeps her composure as she admits that he did not mention this. Ellie hears malice in Sara’s voice when Sara assures her that someday, Ellie will also find someone special to share her life with. When Ellie is running errands in town later, she runs into Jack and describes Sara’s visit. Jack apologizes for not telling her about Sara and says that he believes Sara’s boldness in visiting Ellie is due to her knowing that Jack once loved Ellie more than he now loves Sara. He tells Ellie that Sara will be at her mother’s that evening and cajoles her into agreeing to dinner at his place.

That evening, Amelia takes Marie out to dinner to take her mind off Clara for a while; she invites Ellie to come along, but Ellie declines, citing previously made plans. Amelia guesses what Ellie is up to and questions her judgment because of Jack’s relationship with Sara. Ellie says that, after Mike cheated on her, she understands how it feels to have a relationship interfered with in this way, but she needs to know how Jack really feels about her. When Ellie arrives at Jack’s house and expresses admiration for the place, Jack tells her that he was lucky enough to run into someone from out of town who had just inherited it and was looking to sell. He renovated the place himself, he tells her, while she watches him expertly cook them a meal. 

Ellie is surprised by how worldly Jack has become; she recalls his book talking about his travels overseas to places she herself has only dreamed of seeing. Jack asks whether Ellie would have come back to Sims Chapel if Clara hadn’t died, and she says she thinks so but that she was just struggling to decide the right way to approach him after reading his book. She tells him that she read about his intended proposal, and he confirms that he still loves her by saying that not getting a chance to propose to her that night is the biggest regret of his life.

After dinner, they drink beer on the porch and continue to chat about their lives. Ellie confesses to being lonely. She asks why Jack never tried to see her again after their argument when he got back from the war. He did stop in Indiana on his way West, but he saw her with Mike. He thought that she looked at Mike the way she used to look at him, and he decided that she had truly moved on and forgotten about him. She asks about Sara, and he says that he is not in love with Sara. He appreciates her loyalty and her company, but she is not Ellie. 

A storm begins to threaten, and Jack suggests that Ellie spend the night. She tells him it is not a good idea, but he asks if he can at least show her the upstairs of the house. He leads her to a room that he tells her no one has ever slept in; it is where she can sleep if she stays. Ellie has the strange feeling that Jack had the room designed specifically with her in mind. Jack takes her into his arms and tells her that he has never stopped loving her. They kiss. She tells him that she loves him too and that this is why she must leave tonight.

After Clara’s funeral, Jack and Ellie talk about the previous evening. When Ellie tells Jack that she would like to meet again, he tells her that it is not a good idea and that they came close to making a serious mistake last night. Ellie, wounded, tells him that she meant what she said about loving him, but he expresses skepticism about this. Later, after the post-funeral meal at Clara’s, they talk again. Jack tells Ellie how much Clara meant to him. He tells her about doing yard work for Clara as a child and her role as a kind of second mother in his life. When he was working on his book, he tells Ellie, he came to Clara for advice. Ellie expresses regret for allowing her relationship with Clara to fade over time. She explains that she never came back to Sims Chapel to see Clara because she was afraid of running into Jack and having to confront his anger at her. Then, she reveals that Clara has left her house to Jack. Ellie shows Jack a letter in which Clara compares him to Bill and expresses faith that he will love the house as much as she has. Jack weeps briefly, moved and grateful. Before he leaves to get back to work, he tells Ellie that, if she wants to, she can come by the docks later to talk.

Later that day, Ellie and Jack sit on a dock together, talking about loss and how it changes life. The song they once danced to at Clara’s house comes on the radio, and they get up and dance together again. Jack says that hearing the song is fate, and Ellie is surprised to hear that he is starting to believe in fate, at least a little. Jack asks Ellie to stay in Sims Chapel instead of going home to Indiana. She points out that he is with Sara now, and he asks whether she would stay if it weren’t for Sara. She says that her answer doesn’t matter because he is, in fact, with Sara. It begins to rain, and Jack walks Ellie back to her car. He asks to see her again before she leaves tomorrow, and she promises to stop by on her way out of town. He jokes that he needs to get home soon, before Sara starts to imagine that he and Ellie have run off together. When he comments that Sara’s face in that situation would look exactly like it did the night she found out he was about to propose to Ellie, Ellie is startled.

When Ellie returns to Clara’s, she confronts her mother with her newfound certainty that Sara called Marie when she found out about Jack’s intention to propose and that this was what brought Marie down to Sims Chapel in such a hurry in August of 1950. Marie finally admits that this is what happened. She says she wanted to stop Ellie from throwing her life away on “some farm boy” and calls Ellie ungrateful (227). Ellie calls her mother a “manipulative, conniving bitch” and announces that she never wants to speak to Marie again (227). Ellie drives to Jack’s house. Finding that Sara is at her mother’s house for the night, Ellie asks whether she can come inside and talk. 

Jack is shocked to learn what Sara did, but he tells Ellie that, realistically, it is a good thing that the proposal never happened. Their lives would have been difficult, had they married so young, and they might not have accomplished all that they have managed to accomplish separately. When he says that marrying as teenagers was not “written in the stars” (231), Ellie challenges him, reminding him that he used to believe that people were able to create their own destinies. Jack says that he does not see how he can stay with Sara, knowing what he knows now. Ellie, a little drunk, asks whether she can stay the night at Jack’s rather than returning to Clara’s, where her mother is. That night, Ellie sleeps in the room that Jack showed her before, and Jack decides that he will break up with Sara. In the middle of the night, both find themselves sleepless, and Ellie makes her way into Jack’s room, where the two have sex.

In the morning, over breakfast, Ellie agrees to stay in Sims Chapel for a few more weeks. She goes to say goodbye to Amelia after Marie has left town; Amelia tells her that Marie was very shaken by the argument with Ellie, but Ellie feels no remorse, thinking her words were completely justified. At his home, Jack confronts Sara with what he knows. She claims that Ellie is lying to him to steal him back from Sara. Finally, Sara admits the truth, adding that she had every right to call Marie because Ellie was just an interloper who never loved Jack the way Sara does. Jack reveals that he has asked Ellie to stay in Sims Chapel and breaks off his relationship with Sara. He tells her that he did love her but that he cannot continue the relationship because he refuses to “be in a relationship built on lies” (238).