Vanishing Acts

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of child sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse and neglect, suicide, kidnapping, pregnancy loss, and violence. Specifically, summaries of Part 10 include references to memories of sexual abuse.

Cordelia “Delia” Hopkins remembers the first time she disappeared. She acted as the assistant to her father’s magic show. “The Amazing Cordelia,” only six at the time, must confront the reality that magic is an illusion and “people don’t vanish into thin air; that when you can’t find someone, it’s because you’ve been misdirected to look elsewhere” (2).

Now an adult, Delia treks through rural New Hampshire with her bloodhound, Greta, on the hunt for a missing four-year-old. After finding the girl, Delia reunites her with her mother. Delia’s thoughts briefly turn to her own mother, who died in a car accident when Delia was three. She is interrupted by a reporter, Fitzwilliam “Fitz” MacMurray, her best friend. Fitz reminds Delia that, though she may miss her mother, her father “was better than most parents put together” (10).

Delia returns home to find her four-year-old, Sophie, upset with her. While Delia was finding the missing girl, she missed Sophie’s parent-child tea at school.