This One Summer

Content Warning: The following Chapter Summaries and Analysis mention miscarriage and suicide.

Rose’s father Evan has been gone for two days, and Rose and Windy are at Windy’s cottage talking. Windy jokes about a horror movie she watched with her mother, and Rose asks her if her mother wants more children. The younger replies that she’s perfect and all her mother wants, and Rose seems skeptical. Windy shows Rose the “krunking” (174) dance moves she learned at Gaia Camp in a series of panels, and Rose bursts out laughing. The younger is initially offended by this, but soon moves on to seeing what her grandmother is up to. The girls sit outside to read when Windy’s mother Evelyn arrives and asks Rose if she is alright. Evelyn offers a listening ear, but this makes Rose uncomfortable, and she leaves.

At the cottage, Rose examines some of the rocks she and her family used to collect together and create walls of rock. She reflects on the state of her family at present, noting “Obviously my family is not going to be building any more rock walls. Or anything else. I’m too old for that stuff now anyway” (181).