The Robber Bride

In the present, Charis follows Zenia and her unknown companion through crowded streets until they stop to talk. When the man turns toward Charis, she sees with shock that it is Larry, Roz’s son. Zenia and Larry exchange a kiss—or so it appears—after which they step into a cab and disappear into traffic. Charis does not know what to do; Larry is an adult, after all. She hails her own cab and orders the driver to follow. She catches up to them in front of a hotel, and they go inside together. As Charis rides the ferry back to the Island, her mind takes refuge in the spiritual world where she confronts Zenia on an astral plane and beseeches her to return Billy to her, along with everything else she’s taken. “But Zenia turns away” (221).

Charis’s history with Zenia begins at the dawn of the 1970s when Charis and Billy move into their house on the Island. Charis teaches yoga, barters lessons for goods and services, plants a vegetable garden, and redecorates the house to the extent that she can. On a misty November morning, Charis gets up, lights the wood-burning stove, and feeds the chickens.