This One Summer

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

Rose discusses what she knows about sex, including a quiz she took in sixth grade and a lesson on where babies come from in the second grade. She draws a birthday card for her mother as Windy dances around the kitchen to loud music. A splash page shows Windy deeply engrossed in the music as she moves around the room with music notes above her head. Rose comments on the size of Windy’s legs and gives her a hard time for wanting to drink more soda. The girls play M.A.S.H. (a children’s fortune-telling game that stands for “Mansion. Apartment. Shed. House.”), and the game reveals that Rose is going to marry Duncan, live in an apartment, and have one child. Rose seems optimistic and realistic about the result, musing, “I guess if Dunc and I got married […] we would live in an apartment first. With regular jobs. Then. Then we would get good jobs. And. And he would go to medical school. And I would take time off to have one. Perfect. Baby.” (79-80). This text is positioned alongside a vertical illustration of the shoreline as Rose and Windy run toward the waves.