The Nature of Fragile Things

There is a joyous reunion at San Rafaela station, and Candace is enraptured with the green countryside, despite the damper climate being a hindrance in keeping her tuberculosis at bay. Sophie cannot help thinking “what a beautiful family Martin has made of us, despite himself” (273).

Elliot reports that the earthquake caved in the gold mine’s entrance and suspects that Martin paid some laborers to dig it out during his stay here. Now the mine is a pile of boulders with a No Trespassing sign outside.

As June approaches, Sophie feels she must go back to San Francisco to inspect the remains of her former home and search for Martin, whose name has not appeared among the dead. The four adults decide that reporting Martin for polygamy to the police could cause Sophie to go to jail for abandoning him in a collapsing house, or for Kat to be blamed for pushing him. However, it suits Belinda to report that James deserted her, so she can dissolve her marriage and be free to marry Elliot. When Belinda advises that Sophie could do the same, Sophie is adamant that she would “rather be viewed as Martin’s widow than an unmarried woman,” and that she does not “want to go back to being Sophie Whalen” for a reason that has nothing to do with the Martin case (276). She proposes to go by Sophie Hocking and pass as Candace’s sister-in-law. Candace, on the other hand, proposes that Sophie should pass as Kat’s mother and Martin’s widow to protect her from criminal prosecution. Candace’s lawyer in Los Angeles, however, will know that Kat is her daughter, and the latter will thus be able to claim the inheritance.

Elliot offers to accompany Sophie to San Francisco, but Sophie insists that it is her mess to clean up. She decides to disappear from San Francisco, certain that no one is looking for her.

San Francisco is still a dire mess when Sophie arrives. Her house on Polk Street is almost entirely gone, apart from the chimney. Moreover, there is not a single fragment of Martin left. Still, Sophie cannot “shrug off the needling truth that Martin might have been able to get to safety somehow” (287). She considers the earthquake an ally in helping her, Belinda, and Kat escape from Martin. She is overwhelmed by the utter decimation of the life she once had in San Francisco. Sophie vows to move on, feeling more resilient because of the disasters that have shaped her. However, Libby, her neighbor from across the street, is calling to her.

This chapter takes the form of an interview between Sophie and Logan on November 6, 1906. The marshal asks Sophie to confirm her hunch that Martin married her to “throw off the suspicion that he marries women for their wealth” (290). Sophie explains that Martin also wanted a nanny and housekeeper for free. Logan then points out that although Sophie does not have any money of her own, she has surrounded herself with rich people and is now the legal guardian to Kat, who stands to inherit Candace’s wealth. Sophie also comes under suspicion because she removed Candace from the Tucson medical facility where she was receiving medical help and brought her to San Rafaela where she died under Sophie’s care. Sophie insists that Candace was dying already, and that she did not want to die alone in the desert.

Logan asks Sophie again why she waited six weeks to report Martin missing. Sophie snaps and says that she “didn’t care that he was missing,” and that he is “a horrible person” (293). She lists his offenses, including polygamy, murdering Annabeth, and potentially causing Candace’s father’s accident. She then says that she waited six weeks to report the incident because she was reuniting Kat with Candace in Tucson. However, Logan accuses Sophie of lying since the moment she told him her name.

Back at the remains on Polk Street, Libby asks if she, Martin, and Kat are okay. Uncertain of how much she should say, Sophie says that Martin has gone missing. Libby insists on looking for Martin, summoning Chester, her husband, and a policeman. Sophie feels forced into reporting that Martin is missing and that she expected him around the time of the earthquake. She adds that she assumes he became a victim of the earthquake.

At the police station, Sophie gives a report describing Martin and tells the lie that will later incriminate her—that she last saw Martin three days before the earthquake. Sophie is ready to leave, but a policeman insists that she see Detective Morris, in case Martin was “the victim of foul play, especially since you expected him home” (302). She must wait with Libby for the detective, and Libby asks intrusive questions which force Sophie to pretend that she developed feelings for Martin. Sophie accepts Libby’s offer to stay with her and sends a Western Union telegram to Kat to inform her of her whereabouts.

When Detective Morris comes over, Libby describes Sophie as “a mail-order bride” and explains how she and Martin met (306). On hearing the story, Detective Morris asks Sophie to affirm that she has no reason to believe that Martin deserted her. Sophie goes home with Libby, confident that the police will conclude that Martin fell victim to the earthquake and that she will be able to close this chapter of her life.

At home with Libby, Sophie gives a brief account of how she and Kat escaped on a ferry to Oakland and then took a boat to San Mateo. Meanwhile, Chester has found a four-man crew that is going to bury the house. The next morning, Sophie has plans to watch the house be buried and then go home to Kat. Libby urges her to tell her when Martin is found and to urge him to rebuild.

At the building site where the house is being buried, Sophie stands close, hoping to see Martin’s remains exhumed from the site. She finds a shard that could be bone and takes it back to Belinda’s in San Rafael. She tells Belinda about Libby’s intervention and the fact that she needed to go to the police station. Sophie decides to say nothing to Kat “until Martin is officially declared a casualty of the earthquake and then I’ll just tell her he probably died” (316). She suspects that this process will take a year, and that Candace will die first; Sophie believes it is better for Kat not to lose two parents so close together. Belinda wonders what will happen if Martin is still alive and tries to take Kat back, but Sophie needs to believe that Martin is dead. She believes that their best strategy should be to go on as normal and check in on their husbands at the San Mateo and San Francisco police stations from time to time. Candace is skeptical that the fragment Sophie found is bone; nevertheless, Sophie buries it between the boulders at the mine.

Belinda calls the county sheriff and reports that her husband has deserted her, while Sophie calls Detective Morris to ask if there is any news on her husband. They all recover in the next few weeks, with Sarah growing, Kat speaking more, and Belinda looking as though she is in love with Elliot. Sophie too recovers a sense of tranquility and writes to her mother that Martin has died but that she and Kat are doing well. She further tells her mother not to worry and that “everything she’d wanted me to have and sacrificed for me to have, I have” (318). However, Candace is weakening, especially as she neglects the advice of a doctor to return to a warm, dry climate. At the last minute, she tells Sophie that she wants to go to her cousin’s place in Texas. This is because she does not want Kat to watch her die. Sophie insists that Candace is too weak, but Candace requests to leave, stating that she has already taken care of documents that appoint Sophie as Kat’s legal guardian and that protect her right to the money.

Candace leaves by private coach two weeks later and says a brief goodbye to Kat. She tells Kat that Sophie is her mother now, and Kat does not say farewell to her mother. The girl becomes silent as she tries to deal with her mother’s absence, and Sophie figures out that it is her method for dealing with events she cannot control. They imagine Candace going through Arizona and New Mexico and finally encountering a gateway to heaven. Sophie also encouraged her to come to terms with the loss by spending time with the peach tree Candace loved while she was still alive. On September 10, they receive a telegram from Texas announcing Candace’s death.

In October, Sophie enrolls Kat in a primary school in San Rafaela. The headmistress Miss Reeves is more understanding than the one in San Francisco, and Kat is an eager learner. Candace’s passing, though sad, has “loosened fetters that had been bound around my heart,” and Sophie feels that Kat is truly hers now (322). The trust fund checks arrive from the Los Angeles bank, and there is so much surplus that Sophie asks Elliot to build a cottage for them on Belinda’s property. Elliot asks Sophie whether she will always want to live in San Rafaela and what will happen if she wants to marry again and have more children. Sophie assures him that she is in no hurry to marry again and wants reassurance that Kat will be allowed to stay in the cottage into her adult years if she wishes. Sophie focuses on the present, stating that she wants somewhere to stay on Belinda’s property.

When Kat sees the plans for the cottage, she asks about her father. Sophie tells her that he is home as well. When Sophie sees Kat’s eyes glistening, she realizes that the child still feels some lingering affection for her father. Sophie says that her father did not know how to love her, but that there are plenty of people who do. Kat accepts making a home in the place of people who love her.

Sophie is saving money, and in November, Elliot asks a friend to help clear a level spot by the peach tree for the construction of the new house. Belinda then brings Sophie a letter from the San Francisco Police Department. The letter asks Sophie to go to the station and provide additional information about her missing husband on November 6. Both Sophie and Belinda are unsettled by the request, but Sophie has no choice but to go. She wears her wedding ring for the visit to preserve an aura of respectability.

At the station, Sophie is greeted by Logan, who deals with federal cases. Sophie notices that the questions progress from ones about Martin to ones about her. She is shocked to find that the detective knows about Belinda, Candace, and Annabeth. In the end, he accuses Sophie of being Martin’s accomplice and of “collaborating with him to get to Belinda’s gold and Kat’s inheritance” (329). Sophie is so offended that she wants to leave, but the detective insists that it is in her interest to stay and finish the interview. He also insists that Sophie has been lying to him from the moment she told him her name.

Sophie claims that she has done nothing wrong and gives evidence that she is not the mercenary Logan thinks she is. He believes that Sophie knows what happened to Martin Hocking, despite her protestations to the contrary. He also wants to know why she is being reticent with her information. Logan confesses that he has “quite the predicament” because he thinks “Martin Hocking well deserves whatever fate might have befallen him” (332). He adds that regardless of what Martin told her, his parents are still alive and that he was the sadistic sort of child who tortured animals. He also made a noose that his older sister hung herself with after her heart was broken. She immediately regretted her decision, but Martin did not save her. She was only saved by their father. Sophie feels sick after learning this information. Martin’s real name is Clyde Merriman, and he collected birth and death certificates so that he could pass himself off with false identities and fool people. The federal investigator reveals that the authorities have long watched Clyde.

Logan reveals that he is “a servant of the law, not my own opinion, and it does not matter what I think about Clyde Merriman” (334). At the end of the day, it is what can be proven in a court of law that counts. He then turns to Sophie and presents her with a death certificate for a Sophie Clare Whalen from County Down. He obtained the certificate while investigating Clyde and discovered that although Sophie emigrated from Ireland as Sophie Whalen, the real Sophie Whalen is dead. He explains that Sophie Whalen was her younger sister who died from a fever at age three. The detective wants to know why she assumed her sister’s identity, but she is too traumatized to tell him. He then pulls out another certificate for a Saoirse Colleen Whalen—“the girl I was” (335). Logan also reveals a marriage certificate for Saoirse and Colm McGough and a death certificate for their premature daughter, as well as Colm’s death certificate from three months before Sophie emigrated to America. Although the cause of death is listed as an “accidental drowning,” the detective learned that many of the family members contested whether it was an accident, as Colm was a strong swimmer (336). The police were unable to talk to his widow (Saoirse), as she had already left. Sophie is in a stupor as she looks down at the documents and feels that she has failed Kat.

Sophie/Saoirse has only the briefest memories of the little sister who died when she was four and a half. After little Sophie’s tragic death, her parents did not mention her, so she became like a dream for Saoirse. Although Saoirse had three older brothers, she was the only one who shared her father’s passion for learning. This continued even as she grew older and began to hang around with her brother Mason and his friends. One of these was Colm McGough, a good-looking fisherman’s son. Saoirse was 16 and still going to school when her father died, and she descended into “a fog of numbness” (340). Saoirse and her mother soon felt the loss of her father’s income, especially after Mason emigrated to America. This was when Colm began to court Saoirse, calling her the “prettiest” and “truest” girl in the village (341). They started dating, and when Saoirse refused to have premarital sex with Colm, he proposed to her instead. While Saoirse was not sure if her feelings for Colm were love or “immense attraction,” she knew that if she married him, she would always be able to provide for her mother (342).

Sex with Colm was initially a pleasant distraction from the grief she felt for her father, but then he began to beat her four months into the marriage on the mistaken pretense that she was flirting with other men. Saoirse was too ashamed to ask her mother for help, and when she got pregnant a year later, she hoped it would mend Colm’s violent ways. However, Colm reacted strangely to the news that she was pregnant, having violent sex with her “as if he wanted to yank out the new life he had put in” (344). Six months into Saoirse’s pregnancy, he came home livid after a fight with his father. Saoirse wanted to escape to her mother’s house, but Colm threw her to the floor and began to kick her repeatedly. Her attempts to protect her child were futile, and she gave birth prematurely to a dead baby girl. She awoke two days later in a Belfast hospital bed, learning that she would never again be a mother, as all her reproductive organs had been removed. Although Saoirse went home with Colm when he came to collect her, she vowed to make him pay for killing their daughter. She found an opportune moment to kill him when she hit him with an iron skillet by the water’s edge, causing him to fall in. Still conscious in the water, he beseeched Saoirse for her help, but she did nothing as she watched him drift away and lose consciousness. She told the other fishermen that Colm had gotten drunk and fallen overboard. Soon after, there was suspicious talk about Colm’s death. Saoirse’s mother, who knew the truth, hatched the plan for her to join Mason in America. Saoirse went to Dublin with Sophie’s birth certificate so that no Irish authorities could find her. She took the further precaution of sending letters to her mother via her brother Niall in Bangor so that no mail from an S. Whalen arrived in Donaghadee.

The real reason why Sophie was so eager to get out of the tenement in New York was that a young woman from the village next to Donaghadee was living on the same block. Sophie could not take the chance that the woman would recognize her and write home. By responding to Martin’s advertisement, Sophie dissolved the identity of Saoirse Whalen McGough.

Sophie fears that she will be arrested for killing Colm and that her and Kat’s futures are now both in jeopardy. Instead, Logan offers her a handkerchief. She states that she is crying because Colm killed her daughter. Sophie feels a sense of calm as she tells Logan everything that happened since Belinda’s arrival on her doorstep the night before the earthquake. Logan confirms that she has no fixed proof that Martin Hocking is dead. He says that the man may still be missing. He urges Sophie to take the papers relating to her past in Donaghadee so that they will be removed from the investigation. Sophie is moved by the fact that the man is risking his career and even his liberty to help her destroy the documents and her past self. He attests that he believes in her, and she senses that Logan has also lost someone, given the tears glistening in his eyes. He urges her to take the handkerchief so that she does not forget. He invites his secretary back in, and they close the investigation, with Sophie swearing that she knows nothing about Martin Hocking.

Afterward, Sophie is half-disappointed the investigation is done, and outside Logan calls her by her real name and tells her to “go home and raise your daughter” (357). She says that she will and then asks the marshal what happened to him. He replies that his wife and son were killed in a retaliatory act by the brother of a man he sent to the gallows. She says that she hopes he can be happy again.

Sophie, who has seen that “truly good men do exist,” envisions that she might one day have a romantic relationship of her own. She believes that Elliot and Belinda will marry, and that Kat will grow up surrounded by love (358).

Through a third-person narrative, readers learn that a grown-up Kat is in Carson City in 1926 to watch the trial of her father, who is going under the name Clayton Sharpe. When Kat was 12, Saoirse/Sophie married a man named Sam who owned a vineyard. Saoirse’s mother also emigrated to the United States and lives with them. While Kat never thinks about Martin anymore, she wonders about the motives behind his behavior. She will tell no one she has been here, except for her husband Victor, who is at home with their 18-month-old son.

Kat’s father has been convicted of the murder of Bernice Templeton Sharpe and is sentenced to death. Martin’s eyes meet hers, and he calls her “Kitty Kat” (362). She shows him the wedding band on her finger as proof of the fact that she has been loved. Someone in the crowd overhears the nickname Clayton Sharpe has given Kat, and Kat replies that she has never met the man in her life. Another man confirms this. This man is wearing a law enforcement badge and tells Kat that while he has never met Clayton Sharpe, he has longed to see him stand trial. The man is Logan. Kat feels well-disposed toward the man, who has a fatherly concern for her and emphasizes that Clayton Sharpe is a stranger to her.